OU4 - Squid Nebula

[Martin Pugh]

Good morning

When I first got data on this fabulous nebula about 18 months or so ago, the 'squid' was just ridiculously faint. Twenty three hours of OIII barely brought it out, so when I first processed it I actually got permission to incorporate the IAC image, and fired it off to APOD in the hope that the wider field data combined with the IAC data would get it noticed. Alas, no cigar.

So, using my own data I have combined a few techniques together in order to show the squid without it being drowned by the Ha. The two exposures are literally poles apart. There is no evidence of the squid in the Ha data whatsoever, but it shows a mass of hydrogen as you would expect.

http://martinpughastrophotography.id.au/images/ou4-SquidNebula.jpg

Ha: 7 hours OIII: 23 hours. CDK 17 and SBIG STXL11002.

cheers
Martin

[gregbradley]

What an interesting object. I have never seen this one before. Fabulous.

Greg.

[topheart]

That is amazing!

What a great effort in every way.

What an amazing DSO.....
Congratulations!
Tim

[Atmos]

Wonderful job dragging it up from the depths!

[cometcatcher]

Wow. Love it!

[RickS]

Great work on that dim Oiii, Martin!

I have 32 hours Oiii on this object from the C300/16803 at SRO and 13 hours from the FSQ106/8300 combo at DSW. Must see what I can do with the combination one day.

Cheers,
Rick.

[Martin Pugh]

Thanks all. Rick, it will be interesting to compare your PI approach to this object with my PS efforts. Good job you have heaps of OIII.

Cheers
Martin

[billdan]

Sure looks awesome Martin, a lot of patience waiting for 23 hours with a 17 inch and still barely enough time to get any decent data means it must be very faint.

Bill

[markas]

Interesting target - spectacular result.

Mark

[Martin Pugh]

Thanks for commenting Bill/Mark.

cheers
Martin

[marc4darkskies]

That's beautiful Martin! Love the delicate structure and colour of the squid with some magenta hues peeping through as well.

[Andy01]

Wow! I thought sh2-308 was dim :eyepop:
It must be like the MCG under lights on Friday night compared to that thing!
Nicely done- have seen a few good versions of this object on the web and yours is terrific, a real sense of delicate gaseous-ness is apparent. :thumbsup:
I doubt I would ever attempt that with my gear even if it were visible from Australia. Hats off to you for your perseverance :thumbsup:
I wonder is this the result of a Wolf-Rayet star like Sh2-308?

[Martin Pugh]

Thank you Marcus/Andy.

Andy - from the NASA website, it states that "Ou4 would represent a spectacular outflow driven by HR8119, a triple system of hot, massive stars seen near the center of the nebula".

cheers
Martin

[SimmoW]

Very unique Martin! Lovely

[Octane]

That is truly fascinating. A mammoth effort paid dividends.

Love your work, Martin.

H

[Retrograde]

What a lovely delicate object. Amazing work!

[Peter Ward]

I rather like your salt and pepper squid, but it's inexplicably not as popular as crab.

Go figure :shrug: ;) :D

[Martin Pugh]

Thanks to those who have added further comment - much appreciated.

Hey Peter - hope you are still on the road to a full recovery. I will certainly have to ponder that cryptic post!

all the best
Martin

[Stevec35]

Terrific shot Martin!

Steve

[Martin Pugh]

Cheers Steve.

Clear Skies
Martin

[ThaiAndy]

Incredible!

[Martin Pugh]

Appreciate that Andy. Thank you.

[cazza132]

Awesome to see your deep sky work again! You have nailed the details in the OIII - one strange supernova remanent. Some wicked magnetic fields going on there. But, it seems to be charging through space, as your Ha data reveals. Some additional Ha data would further detail that bow wave - the mass is moving! And hydrogen is getting a bit gee'd up there. Awesome OIII details - probably the best ever. Love it!

[cazza132]

As I said - some bangin' OIII:thumbsup:. Is there a pulsar happening there that we know of? I always like to know any science known about these objects.

[Paul Haese]

That's a lovely result for an object that is quite faint. I like the composition and the colour looks good Martin. Detail is excellent.

[Martin Pugh]

Thanks Paul/Troy.

Troy - the only info I can dig up is what I posted earlier in this thread; taken from the NASA APOD page on the object.

I trawled the IAC website too but couldn't even find the image.

cheers
Martin