Gourd mosaic in OIII - 20hrs

[Placidus]

Back in 2015 we did the top left quarter of this image (in H-alpha and OIII), and commented on the striking resemblance to the "nose" of a bottle-nosed dolphin.

Here we've completed a 4 panel mosaic (https://photos.smugmug.com/Category/Wolf-Rayet/i-JVkkh3g/0/O/Gourd%20Nebula%20OIII%2020%20hrs.jp g) of the entire Gourd nebula, all in OIII.

Aspen CG16M on 20" PlaneWave CDK. 3nM Astrodon filter. Processing using GoodLook 64. Final 50% reduction in image size in CS5.

The whole nebula does look like a gourd fruit, but it still has strong echoes of an ice sculpture of a dolphin broaching the surface.

Weather has been hot, with appalling seeing almost all the time, but it doesn't look like it's about to get any better. Perhaps a workable approach is to do half-nights in Spring and half-nights in Autumn, rather than whole nights in Summer, but interestingly, the final image with the 20" in a Central Western NSW heat wave is not too different to the image from the Atacama with a six inch scope! As the estate agent said, "Location, Location, Aperture".

Best,
M & T

[Paul Haese]

That's fantastic detail. As you say very similar to the Atacama teams image. I am hoping to see a colour version from you sometime in the next year or so.

[Andy01]

WOW, just Wow and wow again guys - the detail - oh my goodness. :jawdrop:

I spent 15+ hrs on that thing last year and got a HM at the Malins for it but now it looks like I shot it with a pinhole camera compared to your image.

Aperture sure is king!:thumbsup:
:bowdown:

[graham.hobart]

as the teenagers say
"OMFG"
that's rather splendid !:eyepop:

[peter_4059]

Beautiful image. Nice to see something different.

[Stevec35]

An incredibly good image M&T. Love the 3D look. I also hope to see some colour at some stage.

Cheers

Steve

[RickS]

Epic work, M&T! My only criticism is that there seems to be a little of the decon wormy look? Could be my eyesight, perhaps. I've been up for 28 hours and need to go to bed soon (US work trip...)

Cheers,
Rick.

[topheart]

Wow! Very detailed and sharp indeed.

Best Regards,
Tim

[cometcatcher]

Incredible detail M&T!

I've been fascinated with this thing ever since I saw the first image of it on FB recently. I'd love to image it, but I don't recall seeing an OSC or RGB image of it. Is it strictly a narrow band object?

[strongmanmike]

Quite an amazing view guys, fun to pan around too. Yes I too see the worms but I think you like'em :shrug:... so, like magenta stars in NB images, which I am partial too :P, I'll ignore them :lol:

Great vista, really well done (apart from the worms arhem..), can't wait for the colour version :thumbsup:

Mike

[Bart]

Very nice, top view!:thumbsup:

[cometcatcher]

I don't see any worms in it. anyway, I am the worm master. :P I do see some fainter tails streaking to the right. Like a registry missalign?

[Placidus]

Thanks, Paul. We've done a bit of H-alpha. It's rather fainter, more diffuse, and sparser than the OIII. It will take quite a bit to make it convincing.





Thanks muchly, Andy. Thrilled that you like it.



Cheers, Graham! Oh to be young again.



Thanks Peter. Our small FOV meant we had to do 4 panels to get it all.



Thanks Steve. It does look like a solid ice sculpture. We're encouraged to try to collect some H-alpha.



You are right, Rick. There is a hint of over-deconvolution, which is odd since we only did 5 rounds. Might have another go at processing it, using just wavelet sharpening.



Thanks kindly, Tim.



Thanks, Kevin. Reckon there's very little there apart from OIII and a bit of H-alpha, so guessing you'd need a dark site and a moonless night to do it with OSC.



Thanks muchly, Mike. As mentioned before, we might have to have another go at processing without any decon, and compare. We'll try to find some other shots to compare with. Perhaps we'll be lazy and wait till we have some H-alpha.



Cheers, Bart!



Thanks again, Kevin. The slight tails streaking to the right are a fundamental defect in the camera, related to the double sampling mechanism. They are always worst in OIII. You'd think that they'd be easy to remove in software. Don't want to send the camera away - separation anxiety. Could just bolt the camera on rotated at different angles and the existing statistical outlier rejection would make them vanish! They are definitely not tracking error or optics. We've come to put up with them.

Many thanks to everyone for both the much needed encouragement in this hot and steamy summer, and the sensible critiques.

Best,
Mike and Trish

[DJT]

Lovely image , MnT

Details great, quietly ignoring worms but given conditions it's still pretty cool.

For the record, if you look to the dolphin there is definitely a wallaby inside it.

[gregbradley]

Well that is quite a magic image. Love this object. Its interesting that it was largely unimaged just a few years ago. Marco did the first serious image that I have seen.

Now we have a new high rez example. Nice and patient work.

Greg.

[Atmos]

Looks fantastic MnT! Quite a seldom images object but seeing the whole thing in full narrowband would be fantastic :)

[Ross G]

Wow!
What an amazing monochrome photo Mike & Trish.
So sharp and detailed and I love the closeup.

Ross.

[dylan_odonnell]

This is incredible!

[Placidus]

Thanks, David! We're still trying to find the escaped wallaby (ignoring the sixty or so full sized roo outside the observatory as I type). Any hints are most welcome.



Thanks muchly, Greg. Just had another look at Marco's shot. Beautiful. Lovely star colours, too.



Thanks, Colin. We can see we're going to have to do H-alpha. Wonder if there is any NII there?



Cheers Ross. Nice to hear from you. We've not been to an Epping astro-imaging meeting for a while, what with Christmas and cattle and kitchen renovations.



Thanks Dylan. We're encouraged.

Best,
Mike n Trish

[DJT]

try this..

[Placidus]

Got it! The head, the eye, and the nose are very convincing.

[alpal]

Lovely pic Mike & Trish -
keep going with more narrow band at other wavelengths on it - if you get time.

cheers
Allan

[Regulus]

Just magnificent!

Trev

[astronobob]

My Goodness, These faint bubble are just getting betterra & Betterra around here, Lol
That fantastic Mike & Trish & a 4 panel mosaic _ wonderful !
Looked like a marshmallow to me, cooked beautifully on the open fire, or just stick it out in the 'heatwave sun, Lol !
Rgrds

[Placidus]

Thanks, Allan. We're going to have to do this.



:)



Thanks, Bob. We're very partial to things that go bump in the night - snr's and wr's. Wonder what noise a nocturnal marshmallow makes as it hits the ground?

[marc4darkskies]

A marvellous vista M&T! Very impressive! :thumbsup: :thumbsup: What was the integration time per panel?

Sure, some decon artefacts are present but that does not detract from the overall impact of the image.

Cheers, Marcus

[Slawomir]

Spectacular image M&T :thumbsup:

Looking forward to the coloured version :)

[Placidus]

Hi, Marcus!

Delighted that you like it. Each individual sub was one hour, roughly equally divided between the four quadrants (4 to 6 hrs each). We're wondering if the decon artifacts are in part because 4 hrs is not really enough. No maths here, but we've noticed in the past that the more photons you have, the more decon you can do without causing worms. That may be complete nonsense. But toward that end, we're doing another 4 hours tonight on the dolphin's nose. (late start due to early cloud). Seeing is about 2 to 2.5 sec arc.



Thanks heaps Suavi. I suspect from what little H-alpha we already have that we're going to have to do 2x2 binning for everything except OIII.

Cheers,
M

[APO_Team]

Nice shot guys :thumbsup:
You're right saying that our pictures are not too different... And that's quite interesting too see the bubble on the bottom with more resolution...

I like this idea: "Location, Location, Aperture" peaople should more think about it sometimes :screwy: :)

Congrats !!
Tom

[Placidus]

Many thanks, Tom and Team.

We should like to know more about the physics of the bubble at the bottom. It looks like a completely separate structure, rather than one of the hundreds of interconnected out-pouchings from the main WR nebula.