The Eightburst Nebula in Vela - deep exposure

[strongmanmike]

Man 4 clear nights out of 5 here in Canberra makes an astonomer very happy :D :clap: so with favourable seeing prevailing on three of the 4 nights with one night truly excellent, I think my decision to shoot this tiny little critter with my rig paid off :cool:

This very deep image shows the rarely seen and full extent of the intricate shells and faint outer ionised gas envelope of NGC 3132 and at only about 1.5' X 1' in size it was a real test for my scope and the local seeing conditions! The intricacies revealed here in the outer envelope I could only find in one other image, taken by the CTIO guys with the PROMPT2 16" F11 RC at Cerro Tololo and I was able to confirm the capture of all structures...so I am quite happy with making myself sleep deprived over 5 days and still going to work :sadeyes: :screwy:....:D

NGC 3132 The Eighburst Nebula (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/165020256/original) (crop displayed at 200%)

Alternative colour palette to better show the extent of the OIII (blue) spread throughout the nebula: NGC 3132 Eightburst Nebula (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/165027471/original)

To show just how small it is on the sky here is the full 38' X 32' un-trimmed un-cropped (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/165020296/original) frame.

Hope you like :)

I last imaged this little bugger (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/55278202/original)waaaay back in 2004 with my LX20012" SCT, I think there is a bit of improvement?.....:P

Mike
ps couldn't really see any signifcant pareidolia in this one... :P

[Placidus]

Absolutely spantacular!

:bowdown: unhesitatingly.

We know from having had a couple goes at it ourselves that this level of detail is extremely difficult to achieve. We came nowhere close. Not only the finest internal detail, but super-faint outer shells that make it far more special and interesting.

[alpal]

That' looking great Mike - very deep.
I couldn't find the CTIO image - only the Hubble one:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/af/NGC_3132.jpg

I notice you have gone deeper than Hubble as their pic doesn't show the outer shells.

cheers
Allan

[glend]

Inspiring Mike. I have tried it and i know how small it is. Great detail

[Atmos]

Magnificent Mike :eyepop:
Not sure what else to say but wow!

[topheart]

Just wonderful - best I've seen of this object Mike!!
Cheers,
Tim

[RickS]

Super cool, Mikey :eyepop:

[Andy01]

Great job Mike, a rarely imaged, interesting object very well captured :thumbsup:

[el_draco]

I really like the full frame, un-cropped version. Very sharp!

[cometcatcher]

Spectaular Mike!!! I don't think I'll be getting this one through your finderscope. ;)

[Tony_]

Magnificent Mike!

(Drops my effort to a new low level - thanks :(:lol:)

Tony.

[astronobob]

Absolutely extraordinary Mike - Major Credit to your work :einstein:

[strongmanmike]

Ha ha Thanks M&T so glad you enjoyed this one...and here, cause you made me smile have another one of these :prey2: :D



Thanks Allan the CTIO shot is here (http://www.starshadows.com/gallery/display.cfm?imgID=312) we gotta move to the Andes...we just gotta...:tasdevil:



Cheers Glan, yes I was quite hesitant to have a shot in case I wasted my time in sheety seeing :prey: and as Mr Murphys luck would have it :rolleyes: the first night was poor seeing...:doh: which caused the slightly fuzzy bright stars...which I don't mind the look of actually, think Akira Fuji :lol:..still..madly I had faith in my site and thought "ok sky gods I will take the colour data tonight then nah nah.":lol: Luckily the next three nights were at least average to good with half of one night settling to pretty excellent seeing, so I gambled..and I won :party: take that seeing gods! :D



Thanks a lot Col, it's a bit of a specky object huh? especially with all those wrinkly outer shells :)



Yeah came out ok huh Timmy? :D cheers dude :thumbsup:



Cheers big ears :)



Thanks Andy, yes a tiny target like this takes some balls to bother shooting, especially without arc sec seeing but in the end I was pretty happy to finish with what I did :thumbsup:



Ha ha cheers Rom...yes, displaying full frame images at small size creates the illusion of being sharper..a good imagers trick ;) displaying 100% full res, or in this case 200% full res, is thrill seeker territory :thumbsup:



No worries Kev, I only need my finder about twice in a typical evening of imaging (on start up and after a meridian flip), so plenty of spare time available :lol:



Cheers Tony, naaah all images are to be enjoyed and respected :thumbsup:



Thanks Bob so glad you like it, an impresive little blighter huh? :)

Cheers everyone :hi:

Mike

[Stevec35]

That's a fine NGC 3132 Mike. Well done!

Steve

[strongmanmike]

Cheers Steve, I was very happy with the final result :thumbsup:

Mike

[codemonkey]

Wow, Mike... that's nuts given the size of the target. Great job mate!

[alpal]

Hi Mike,
In the Andes the seeing would be better than your Dawes limit.
Your image compares very well.

Did you attempt to use 3 x drizzle?
If not there could be some more detail to be extracted!
I know for sure it helps on such a small target.

cheers
Allan

[strongmanmike]

Cheers heaps Lee, yes, a very small target indeed.



Well Allan, a careful comparison shows essentially little difference in nebula resolution or depth between our images, (I have revealed a little more inside the inner ring perhaps?), other than they seem to have accentuated the very outer extended diffuse Ha halo a little more..? and I like their stars. I used no decon on my stars either, I only apply it to the nebulosity, sadly even after 13 years of using Astroart, I haven't mastered applying its decon filter to stars with a satisfactory outcome :question: :shrug:...and I use no other image processing software other than PSCS3+ :)

As for drizzle...well, to be honest, no idea about that, should look into it.

Mike

[Atmos]

I've done testing with 3x3 drizzle and found that it doesn't help any more than a 2x2 drizzle apart from a lot of extra processing power. Just as easy to 2x2 drizzle and then increase image size, gives the same result :)

[alpal]

Hi Mike,
I use Drizzle in Deep Sky Stacker.
They explain it here:
http://deepskystacker.free.fr/english/technical.htm

There is a mouse over picture if you click the 2 blue lines to the left of the picture.
They show only 2x drizzle & the resulting difference.

You have to use the custom rectangle to select only a tiny portion of the picture but
that's exactly what you have on your target.

I prefer to use 3 x Drizzle which means it will increase the size of
that small portion of your image by a factor of 9.
It really is magic & is the method they use on some Hubble images to
extract that bit of extra detail.
It's amazing that DSS offers it for free!


cheers
Allan

[strongmanmike]

I have added an alternative colour palette (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/165027471/original) to better show the spread of the OIII (blue) throughout the nebula.

Mike :)

[atalas]

Very cool:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[LewisM]

That's a rippa Mike!

Clear nights with absolutely spectacular seeing...yup, that's what we definitely had! I couldn't believe it, and I am near the airport! Just jaw dropping.

[marc4darkskies]

An outstanding shot Mike! :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[strongmanmike]

Cheers men, glad ya'll liked it :)

Mike

[strongmanmike]

I last imaged this little bugger (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/55278202/original)waaaay back in 2004 with my LX20012" SCT, I think there is a bit of improvement?.....:P

Mike

[marc4darkskies]

Meh ... a slight improvement ... barely perceptable! :lol:

[strongmanmike]

He he he...THIS (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/156219462/original) is still my best illustration of improvement over time though :)

Mike

[Shiraz]

been imaging this myself - it's very hard to manage the dynamic range this well.

An excellent image - up there with the best and will be very hard to beat from Australia.

HP5! - great stuff and a blast from the past:thumbsup: I liked Tri-X in D76

[Atmos]

Mike, you imaged that 5 years before I was born :lol: May have been 30 years apart for you!

[gaseous]

Thought the Eight Burst was spectacular looking through my 16" dob on Saturday night, but after seeing Mike's image I feel like just gouging out my eyes in self-loathing: superb image indeed!

[strongmanmike]

Cheer Ray :thumbsup: Ha ha well Paul H is hitting it now too I understand, hardly ever see an image of this little blighter and now we will likely see three good'uns :) Aaaaah, sigh... HP5, Tri-X aaah those were the days.....NOT! :eyepop: :lol:

Mike



Ha ha yeah, been doing this record the Universe capper for a few years now :whistle:



:lol: Cheers Patrick but no need to remove your eyes, a 16" dob gives a great view of this little bugger particularly in good seeing, I recall looking at it through a 24" F3.3 at SPSP a few years ago and it was amazing :thumbsup:..in fact I spent 3hrs one night with it looking at lots of things and I was blown away with the amount of stuff I could see in objects I had imaged before :eyepop:

[Octane]

Rip snorter!

As much as I love the close-up, there's something spooky and magical about seeing the uncropped image -- it's like seeing pink chewing gum stuck on the firmament in the middle of nowhere.

A slight improvement from your 2004 version. :P

H

[strongmanmike]

Cheers H :thumbsup: ...funny, I thought the exact same thing about it looking like chewing gum (you can even see the thumbprint) and the in the middle of nowhere, in the full frame shot :lol:

Mike

[andyc]

Small but sharp, I like it!

[strongmanmike]

Cheers Andy :thumbsup:

Mike

[gregbradley]

Top work Mike.

Greg.

[strongmanmike]

Cheers Greg, I love shooting these little blighters...almost as much as galaxies. Perhaps even better than galaxies really, cause you can shoot'em with some moon light around :thumbsup:

Mike

[SkyViking]

Superb resolution and detail in the close up there Mike, well done! You must have had some great seeing indeed.
Very nice colours too, and have to say my favourite is the full frame, that view is just splendid. :thumbsup:

[Ryderscope]

A great result Mike. You have definitely been striving after some difficult and fascinating objects whilst pushing the capabilities of your setup.

[strongmanmike]

Cheers Rolf, yes the seeing cooperates on occasions, the attached shot of Sirius B was taken on one of the nights for this image.



Cheers Rod, yes, I like doing some of the less popular objects sometimes and pushing my setup and local conditions to their limit :thumbsup:

Mike