NGC 346, 371, 395: The Duck, the Rose, the Goldfish, and her Lover

[Placidus]

NGC 346, the brightest piece of nebulosity in the Small Magellanic Cloud (but still faint at magnitude 10.3, surface brightness 14.3) is at bottom right. It is clearly the head of a duck (Daffy, most likely), facing to our right, and wearing a Centurion's helmet, as ducks in the SMC often do.

Exactly central is the much fainter NGC 371 (mag 12.5, SB 16.6), in the shape of a lilac rose bloom.

Both Centurion Daffy and the Rose are relatively strong in OIII due to young clusters within.

Balancing them, toward 9 o'clock is a goggle-eyed goldfish (NGC 395), suitably golden in colour, body twisted into an S-shape, and tail hooked around a piece of Magellanic seaweed. It is relatively richer in H-alpha than in OIII. The tail itself shows an interesting blistered texture.

Cropped off the thumb, but present in the full image here (https://photos.smugmug.com/Category/Star-Forming-Regions/i-4ZFsk78/0/81fdc594/O/Duck%20Rose%20Goldfish%20and%20her% 20lover%20-%20NGC%20346%20LMC%20Ha%2014%20hrs% 20OIII%2012hrs.jpg), in a gentle romantic touch and nothing to do with the movie, you will see neither cook nor thief, but her lover: a pair of red-gold H-alpha lips about half-way toward 12 o'clock.

This area is very typical of the Magellanic Clouds in that there is often very strong separation between OIII rich objects and H-alpha rich objects.

There are also several faint super-bubbles, great big gaseous shells, typical of areas with much past supernova activity. A large but vague one, as if made from drifting sea-weed, encloses the rose and goldfish. A smaller but more distinct superbubble can be seen toward top left of the goldfish. A tiny, presumably younger one is directly below the rose. It would be interesting to see if it was relatively strong in SII, but it would require a very long exposure.

Due to the 36 min arc field of view being a bit tight on the goldfish tail and the duck's bill, this is again a 3 panel strongly overlapping mosaic, just to give them a bit of swimming space. The full image is 50 min arc across, north up. The thumb is more the width of a single frame.

Red: H-alpha 14 hours; Blue: OIII 12 hrs; mostly in 1 hr subs.

The green channel is a mixture of the two. Feel free to suppress the green channel if you prefer to do so.

We did this one some years ago, using 2x2 binning because of its faintness. This time we've stayed unbinned, but used much longer exposure (total of 24 hours). We think that's done the trick.

Aspen CG16M on 20" PlaneWave.

[strongmanmike]

Yeah, a great region that with some good details revealed guys :thumbsup:...the SMC is often relegated to the imaging why bother cupboard, due to an impression of being boring...but clearly it is anything but, just need to point and expose and have a look :)

Be nice to see this in HaOIIIRGB

That's definitely Daffy Ducks girlfriend there too btw ;)

Mike

[Placidus]

We agree totally on all points! You've made our day! :D

[willik]

Hell of a image top marks
Martin

[Ryderscope]

Would you believe that I was doing a search on NGC 346 with a view to making it my next imaging target and up pops this post ;) You've produced another fine visual extravaganza MnT. The wispy lilac tendrils of nebulosity and clever supporting text make for a wonderful display.

[Slawomir]

A beautiful image Mike and Trish. This is one of my favourite areas in the sky and I just wish it was a bit higher from our location.

This image is amongst the best ones I have seen this year. Well done.

[Placidus]

Cheers, Martin!



Thanks muchly, Rodney. Those wispy tendrils and bits of seaweed speak of the busy history. Please give it a go! It's a lovely bit of sky.



Thanks so much, Suavi. We're thrilled that you like it. :)

Best,
MnT

[Atmos]

I have shot this as a HaOIIIRGB last year but not to this level of detail or contrast!
it is a pretty faint sucker so it deserves the amount of data that you've thrown at it. Definitely up there with the best I've seen of the SMC :)

[Placidus]

Thanks, Colin, that's very encouraging. We recall your very fine much wider field shot.

Best,
MnT

[RickS]

Some very familiar objects there, M&T, but at an image scale that shows details I've not seen before. Bravo :thumbsup:

[Peter Ward]

OK.. i see the fish. Remarkable to see what such a wide net can catch :). :thumbsup:

[silv]

oh, gorgeous! Almost 3-D like effect. I followed your suggestion, downloaded it and added a little more green. To my eyes it adds yet more 3D.
Just so wonderful and inspiring, this pas de trois.

At the top left of the rose there's a tiny bright blue band. That's not an artefact, is it? Do you happen to know which chemical that is?

[codemonkey]

Nice work guys; exceptional data and processing of an interesting view!

[topheart]

Hi M+T,
A great image!
I really like the framing of the objects using a mosaic.
Well done!
Cheers,
Tim

[Jeff]

Just amazing M&T. :eyepop:
Spent a good 30 minutes admiring your full resolution image and enjoying the superb write up. :thanx:

[Placidus]

Thanks, Rick. One mostly sees either the whole Magellanic Cloud, or perhaps just NGC 346.



Cheers, Peter :)



Hi, Annette :hi: Thrilled that you like it as much as we do. We like your version, but there is a strong and powerful Anti-Kermit Lobby who would prefer no green at all, whom we fondly contemplated. The little blue ring is almost certainly an artefact. It ought to go away in a 3 panel mosaic like this. Three Rings for the Elven Kings, Seven for the Dwarf Lords in their Halls of Stone, Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die. One ring to confuse them all, get past statistical rejection techniques, and in the darkness bind them.




Thanks Lee!



Thanks Tim. Reassuring.


Steve Crouch's tiny planetary nebula is there, but its colour is different due to our using quite a different palette and processing. We found it very difficult to find when Steve first posted it, so here's a moderately tight crop of our image rotated 90 deg clockwise to be the same orientation as Steve's, and with what we believe to be Steve's planetary marked. Hope we're right.

Cheers,
MnT

[Andy01]

Another crackerjack image M&T - you've off shown the hidden beauty within the SMC and unveiled all of it's treasures - very nicely done! :thumbsup:

[cometcatcher]

Just beautiful!

[silv]

One ring to fool them all and in their backside bite them. :)

It's not an artefact. It's an actual thingy. I wonder how it came into being, looking so distinct as a ring, yet so near a huge force. Or maybe it's not as near as it looks and maybe it's an object not created by the same event or circumstance as NGC371.
As to what element it might be I don't know. In more common colour processing it looks turquoise. Iron?

Here's one I couldn't find the original from, so no artist credits showing the same distinct ring very well http://s1.1zoom.me/big0/850/Stars_NGC_371_NGC_346_500951.jpg
And this one shows it's turquoise shade but the ring form is lost. https://farm3.static.flickr.com/2873/33441654303_aeb0f8e99d_b.jpg

Intriguing. Quite overwhelming how looking at [your] images it makes me NEED to know science facts re cause, effect and elements. That I have no knowledge makes me want to scream like a toddler in frustration. Anyone else get that emotion?

[multiweb]

Top shot Mike. I can see everything but the fish. :question:



I think it's time to start lobbying for the green again. Vive le vert! :evil:

[Placidus]

Many thanks for your kind words Jeff.



Very well researched. That will larn me! Of course it has to be real, because of the way we took the image as three very distinct frames, and it is in all of them! I discounted it because it looked so special.

Don Goldman (who makes the 3nM filters we use) took a very fine shot (https://astrodonimaging.com/gallery/ngc-346-and-371/) which shows it. He's even annotated it with the catalogue number E0102. The fact that it is intensely blue means it showed up in our OIII filter but not in our H-alpha filter. That it is very tiny and very bright in OIII suggests that it's something that happened very violently and very recently. The first thing that comes to mind is the young remnant of a supernova explosion. If it were very nearby one might think of a Wolf Rayet nebula (like Herschel's ring) or a planetary nebula (like the Ring nebula in Lyra), but I'm sticking my neck out and guessing it's too bright for and too pure in OIII for a WR, and far too big and bright to be a PN in another galaxy, but as you so poetically said, one ring to fool them all and in the backside bite 'em.

Once again, thanks so much for having a very close look at it.

STOP PRESS POSTSCRIPT: Googling E0102 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E0102) reveals it is indeed a supernova remnant!!!

How about that !!!




Thanks Andy, that's beautifully put. :hi:



Thanks Kevin!



Thanks muchly Marc for the support on multiple fronts!

… "She's the most distressful galaxy
That ever yet was seen;
They're hanging men and women there
For wearing of the green


(Mike's maternal grandfather was, horror of horrors, a loyal Orangeman. More distantly on his paternal grandfather's side were the Moriarty's, who may or may not have been green. The Berthon clan were of course French Huguenots who were definitely not green, and were the bad guys in the movie Versailles, although one of them did make astronomical instruments. The Jones lot were Welsh of no repute at all and well out of it. But most of his genes seem to have come from his great great great grandfather on his father's mother's side, who was Greek and struck not green but gold at Ophir, not far from Placidus.)

[peter_4059]

Quite a feast for the eyes M&T. There is so much going on in that field and I can see at least two other fish emerging from the deep, swimming toward the camera in the top RH quadrant of the image.

[SimmoW]

so detailed and sharp M&T, and quite a different palette. Yours is so much more detailed than the SMC image I am posting soon, but then again I have a 5 degree fov!

I must image the SMC and LMC the most, I find it chock full of interest and intrigue

[Atmos]

I checked my full resolution HaOIIIRGB image and I cannot see anything but a green tinge in that area but I also don’t have the resolution or integration to be able to separate it from the neighboring area.

Great catch!

[Placidus]

Thanks, Peter. Found the other fish.



Thanks Simmo. Five degrees! So you can do the Vela SNR, Andromeda, the Veil nebula, that big thing in Monoceros ...



Cheers, Colin. Yes, there we were thinking it was an artifact, and it's the most interesting thing in the whole image. A bit like SN1987A in the LMC, only large enough to resolve.

[silv]

#21 @M&T thank you VERY much for the additional info! You're heroes *flower bouquet smiley*

[Stevec35]

Nice view of one of my favourite vistas in the SMC M&T. I have to admit I don't like the palette very much though.

Cheers

Steve

[Placidus]

You are most welcome! Thanks for your enthusiasm, which is heartening.




Ta, Steve.

We notice that your image of the area has SII Ha OIII, and it is not possible or meaningful to directly compare it with ours aesthetically; it is like comparing a sunset with a beach scene, with different underlying structures and chemicals.

Our palette is: Ha = red, OIII = blue, green = meaningless, user please set as they see fit from the other two channels using their favourite imaging program.

For example, if you copy the blue channel over the green channel, you get the standard Ha = red, OIII = cyan. Sadly, for colourblind Mike, that produces an apparently totally grey modge.

In addition, you can copy some of the red over the blue, and pretend that it is H-beta, but that is unscientific, because we didn't actually measure H-beta, and it would be making it up.

Within those constraints and those freedoms, how would you improve the colour over what we've chosen? We'd be delighted if you wanted to download our image, remap to your choice, and post it as a thumbnail.

Very best,
Mike and Trish

[strongmanmike]

There is the Hubble palette aaaand there is the Placidus palette...I recon it could well take off guys :D

What I like about you guys is that you don't conform, you are not driven by artistic "look" or visual convention alone all the time and ya know what?...most of us are all getting used to it, so good on you :thumbsup: :cheers:

Mike

[Placidus]

Thanks Mike ! :cheers:

[Stevec35]

Ta, Steve.

We notice that your image of the area has SII Ha OIII, and it is not possible or meaningful to directly compare it with ours aesthetically; it is like comparing a sunset with a beach scene, with different underlying structures and chemicals.

Our palette is: Ha = red, OIII = blue, green = meaningless, user please set as they see fit from the other two channels using their favourite imaging program.

For example, if you copy the blue channel over the green channel, you get the standard Ha = red, OIII = cyan. Sadly, for colourblind Mike, that produces an apparently totally grey modge.

In addition, you can copy some of the red over the blue, and pretend that it is H-beta, but that is unscientific, because we didn't actually measure H-beta, and it would be making it up.

Within those constraints and those freedoms, how would you improve the colour over what we've chosen? We'd be delighted if you wanted to download our image, remap to your choice, and post it as a thumbnail.

Good point guys. I now think you've done very well with the "Placidus" palette - the detail is outstanding. I don't think I could do anything better. My preference for imaging this area has always been HaRGB and that probably influences my comments. Here's a HaRGB image of mine from a few years back.

http://members.pcug.org.au/~stevec/ngc346_STL11K_RC.htm

[Placidus]

Wow! The RGB in your HaRGB image reminds the forgetful that it is another galaxy with billions of stars, and very clearly shows the cluster that is powering the duck.

[Ross G]

Hello Mike and Trush.


What an amazing photo....so sharp and detailed!


It's rare that I zoom into a photo to check out all the detail but I spent ages in yours admiring the objects and shapes.


I love the composition and colour.


Inspiring work!


Ross.

[Placidus]

Thanks muchly Ross. That's heartening.