RCW44 Planetary Nebula

[Bassnut]

Hi Guys

Not oft imaged and a challenge to process. The image is heavily cropped, as its only 2.5' in diameter. A lot of hrs Ha and OIII exposure time, too many to mention :P


Big here (https://fredsastro.smugmug.com/Photography/Astrophotography-1/i-2NRzzGt/A).

Also known as VBRC2, Wray 17-31 and ESO 166-PN-21.
It is an evolved planetary nebula in the southern constellation of Vela, and about 3,900 light years distant. The bright portion of the nebula is circular and about 2.5' in diameter.
The central white dwarf DAO (hydrogen/helium-rich displaying Helium ionisation) star is one of the hottest and most evolved known for a planetary nebula.

Taken on my RCOS 10" RC Scope at f9, SBIG STXL6303E Camera and PME mount at itelescopes Siding Spring Observatory.
Processed with CCDstack, Star Tools and Photoshop.
Mapped as Ha Ha, OIII.

[strongmanmike]

Ah haaaa! Good'ol Wray 17-31, wow, it looks so like a psychedelic globe of an alien planet, cool stuff Fred, quite 3D. I shot it a couple'a years ago myself, you know it also has a faint outer halo..? I managed to reveal a bit of it and then Don Goldman confirmed it more recently from his rig at Siding Spring :)

Mike
who owes you a couple'a Crankshaft beers ;)

[Andy01]

wow, looks like one the marbles I has as a kid, great work Fred :)

[Bassnut]

Thanks Mike. Yes, the outer halo, well that didnt appear on my 10" (well, a bit of noise alluding to it did) Dons 20" captured it, noisily too, but im not jealous :P. Oh, and my post description was stolen from him.

The Crankshaft beer is appealing. I went for a cruise around the 400 odd participants but couldn't find you for a top up, it was dark though ;)

[topheart]

Good one Fred!
Cheers,
Tim

[Placidus]

Lots of fine structure there, Fred. The Ha to orange, OIII to blue works well for us. Another stretch goal captured. :thumbsup::thumbsup:

[RickS]

Great work, Fred! Gwan... how many hours?

[Atmos]

Very nice Fred!
Looks like your seeing was quite reasonable considering it's size.

[marc4darkskies]

Nice one Fred! But, while the thumbnail looks good, the smugmug version seems to have dark grey poxy artefacts - see thumbnail below. :shrug:

[Bassnut]

Cheers Andy, had I caught the halo it wouldnt have been so solid :P



Thanks Tim !



Thanks M&T. Now that you say "orange" it doesnt sound so good, I probably should have gone a bit more red.


Thanks Rick. Well, Ha 38hrs and OIII 16hrs. I sometimes just keep clicking go until I have lined up another target, or if I'm busy.



Thanks Colin. Yes seeing has been pretty good lately, but I upscaled x4 and used heaps of max entropy decon which is a bit unusual these days just to get a reasonable result.



Well, I clipped colour a bit much earlier on so only Lum (grey) was left I think.

[gregbradley]

Nice work Fred. The long hours paid off.

Greg.