Not-so-shapely and her blobby friend

[LewisM]

Froze my bo-jangles off before the fog from the swamp (parliament house) started glowing like the radioactive dump it is. Was too damned frozen to refocus all the time, so this one is soft, and it's only 3.666666666666666666666666666666666 66666666666666666666 hours worth of 10 minute subs.

Carp loads of air traffic tonight, hence my rather odd number of subs. Noisy as all heck, and at f/5, it's not overwhelmingly detailed especially given the short integration time and I was using an OSC CCD from LP Hell :) Plus it is not exactly an overwhelmingly expansive PN.

And my wife didn't fiddle with the power cable either! When I finally had the courage to go gather it all in for the night, everything was shimmering and glistening like a hairy fairy in a tutu had gone berserk with glitter - frost and ice EVERYWHERE - all my cables were stiffer than a groom on wedding night...the ground crunched under my behemoth mass waddling through the frozen tundra grass...my breath froze instantly and fell to Earth shattering like my fortitude despite 3 glasses of hot freshly made glühwein partaken mere minutes before (minus the cinnamon - who with even a shred of taste and sanity likes cinnamon? No, seriously, you don't)

Now, who will be the first to identify the rather faint little red PN nearby (bottom left of centre) - it shows on the Wikisky area map too.

The link herewith for the slightly better version (though I still made it 66% reduction): https://www.astrobin.com/full/355800/0/

UPDATED with a bilinear combine instead, and didn't push it so much: https://www.astrobin.com/full/355893/0/ (you can see the fog/ice creeping in lol)

Now red channel tweaked: https://www.astrobin.com/full/355893/C/

I think I will leave this one to Paul and his 12" scope and 22hrs integration vs my 4" scope and not even 4 hrs :)

[Placidus]

Bravo! Two planetary nebulae in one image! :thumbsup::thumbsup:

And the story of its genesis and capture was magnificent. It was below freezing here too, frosty, the kangaroos were all glued harmlessly to the ground. But there was no wind, so we didn't need the gluhwein.

[LewisM]

Thanks M&T.

I heeded the call of nature at around 3 am - on the way back to the warmth of the bed, I couldn't help but notice the sky outside was now glowing apocalyptic red - the fog had fully set in, and the LP around here was making it truly glow like something out of a science fiction damnation movie.

Running the images through astrometry.net and Astrobin tells nothing - just the star catalogue numbers.

[Atmos]

I’m a bit further north than you at the moment Lewis. I arrived at my camping spot for the night at 6:50pm and started unpacking for some imaging. By 7:30 my car and swag was covered in frost :lol:
I ended up with frost inside my swag from my breathing.

Nice planetaries though Lewis, about the best that can be done at your image scale.

[LewisM]

It hit -5° actual, but the felt/apparent was -8.7° here at the airport.

I made the accidental mistake of walking on our garden hose to take a leek in the corner....today's job is splicing in a repair.

Anyway, you had Matt to keep you warm and cosy :lol:

[strongmanmike]

How beautiful are our regions winters :love:...aaaaah love it, the colder the better I say. I left my observatory last night at about 12am and it was -3 Deg C...being in a dome means no issues with dew/ice/wind (its great), although there was some fine ice forming on the inside of the dome roof and just the front of the AG12 dust cap.

Nice shot and cool that you got two rings for the price of one.

Mike

[LewisM]

Ta Mike. I think it MAY be 3 - examining the guts upclose, I can see what LOOKS like a rather distant cluster just a little below SP-1. There is also some wispy H-a in the full un-cropped image, but not worth worrying about. Might be nice to put in the H-a filter and bring out the little bubble down the bottom. BUT....not at f/5 with a 4" refractor :)

Just went for a walk ...seems the Brindabellas MAY be getting some snow right now by the looks of it. Hard to tell from here. It is bitter outside at the moment - had my hoody up and hands in pockets - the ever so slight breeze is ramming the cold down to the bones. (it's 1.5° now, but felt is -2.5° - at 10:34 am :eyepop:) (the frozen grass picture was yesterday morning, but it looked just like that at midnight here in the torch light!)

Revised image: https://www.astrobin.com/355893/

[LewisM]

Last fiddle and diddle: https://www.astrobin.com/full/355893/C/

Boosted the red channel just enough to show the inner red ring. Paul's image made me do it :)

[Paul Haese]

That's pretty cool looking Lewis. Good detail considering the aperture you're using too. The other PN is just out of my image and perhaps needs a good look at in the future.

[LewisM]

Thanks Paul -high praise indeed

[RickS]

Nice work, Lewis! It's like an astronomical Where's Wally :)