NGC 6164-5 work in progress

[markas]

The central star in this complex is an O class of ~40 solar masses. It is nearing its end of life, and has been subject to mass loss events (something like Eta Carinae?). It is thought to be destined to end as a supernova

The dumbell-like inner shell has the two designations: NGC 6164 and 6165.

The very faint outer shell - mainly OIII - is only rarely imaged, as it is extremely tenuous.

This image was shot with ASA10N at f/6.8; Moravian G3-16200; DDM85 unguided. 2hr40min OIII, 2hr30min Ha, 1hrRGB all binned X2, as I was prepared to sacrifice resolution for photons. The image structure is essentially Ha to red, OIII to green and blue, RGB star colours.

Having processed it, it is clear I could use another 4hr OIII to advantage, so it is a work in progess

FOV is approx 40' square,

[gregbradley]

A very nice image. As you say it would improve with some more exposure time but looking very good so far.

Greg.

[Placidus]

Excellent! :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup: You're picking up unbelievably faint hints of OIII in the outer shell toward 2 o'clock which didn't show up when we did it unbinned. We're going to have to do it all again now.

[multiweb]

Those Oiii bubbles really popup. Great colours. :thumbsup:

[cometcatcher]

That's deep. Nice OIII details.

[Andy01]

Looking great so far, can't wait to see the finished result :thumbsup:

[RickS]

Nice work, Mark! Love the colours. The Oiii on this puppy is seriously faint.

[lazjen]

Did you do this in Melbourne?

No matter where, it's great so far, and like others have said, look forward to the final result.

[RobF]

One of my favs and you've already more than done it justice Mark! :thumbsup:

[topheart]

Well done!!
Cheers,
Tim

[strongmanmike]

Very nice image Markas, I think it looks fine already, the outer OIII shell is looking well revealed :thumbsup:

Mike

[traveller]

Great stuff, can't wait to see the final product.

[markas]

Thanks to all for your comments. Very much appreciated.

Chris, it was shot from the north side of Macedon near Hanging Rock. I don't know how well the very faint OIII areas would show from Melbourne. As it was, the OIII stack was quite noisy with a reasonably dark sky (SQL 21.3), whereas the Ha was very clean.

Not sure when I'm going to get the extra OIII - this dark time looks unprospective:mad2:, so it's probably a month away.....

Mark

[Atmos]

That's really nice!
I had been wanting to image this this new moon, doesn't look like that's going to happen :/
With some more OIII some of that fault stuff will come up a lot cleaner :)

[APO_Team]

Hi Mark,

Very nice picture and great job :thumbsup:
Looking forward to seeing it with the next 4 hours OIII.
We are working on it too ;)

Tom
APO_Team

[Stevec35]

Certainly looking good so far

Cheers

Steve

[markas]

Steve, APO,

Thanks for the comments - I hope I don't have to wait too long for the extra OIII.

Mark

[marc4darkskies]

Nice work so far Mark - colours look spot on and the shell pops!

[markas]

Thanks Marcus.

Mark

[atalas]

Awesome Mark....well done :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[markas]

Thanks Louie

Mark

[Slawomir]

The image looks very good Mark. With my system I had to do about 10hours per filter on this target to get to a good quality. Looking forward to the next stage :thumbsup:

[Paul Haese]

Colour and detail looks good to me. It's one of my favourite objects in the night sky.

[markas]

Thanks for the comments. I looks like July for the next data:mad2:

Mark