Hershel's Ray

[Andy01]

Hey Folks,

Been sitting on this one for a while - but was distracted with interstate speaking gigs etc. so here is my version of NGC 2736 in Bicolour +RGB.

20 hrs data Ha/O3/RGB - 660/480/20/20/20 from my suburban local in Melbs.

Taken on the QSI 683 WSG8 and the new Sidereal Trading modded Skywatcher 10" f4 CF Newtonian on the TAK NJP mount.

Hershel's Ray is the brightest part of the huge Vela Supernova Remnant - travelling across space at at a cruizy 500,000 km/hr! :eyepop:

Moving from bottom to top in the frame near the centre of this image- thin, bright, braided filaments are actually long ripples in a cosmic sheet of glowing gas seen almost edge-on. The shock wave plows through interstellar space at over 500,000 kilometres per hour. Cataloged as NGC 2736, its elongated appearance suggests its popular name, the Pencil Nebula.

The Pencil Nebula is about 5 light-years long and 800 light-years away, but represents only a small part of the Vela supernova remnant. The Vela remnant itself is around 100 light-years in diameter, the expanding debris cloud of a star that was seen to explode about 11,000 years ago. Initially, the shock wave was moving at millions of kilometres per hour but has slowed considerably, sweeping up surrounding interstellar material.

In the narrowband, wide field image, red and blue colours track the characteristic glow of ionised hydrogen and oxygen atoms. (APOD)

High res HERE (https://www.astrobin.com/394436/)

Checkout my shiny new website HERE (https://andysastro.com/) :D

[ChrisV]

Simply stunning Andy

[Peter Ward]

Nice....but I like the new website even more.

Very slick. :thumbsup:

Out of interest ....What did you use to set up the site?

[Andy01]

Thanks Chris, it’s been on my bucket list for years, nice to finally have the gear to do it justice! Cheers :)




Cheers Peter, my website was designed & built in WordPress by my web designer buddy. Took some time & a few favours to get it up.
Needed to have it online in time for my recent World Science Festival talk, and I’ve got quite a backlog of material to add yet.
Nice thing is that I can easily add more content now as all the tricky back end stuff was done professionally for me, so it’s quite simple to add a post/image/page as required :)

[gregbradley]

Best Hershels Ray I have seen Andy.

Outstandingly good!:eyepop:

Greg.

[willik]

Looks great Andy :thumbsup:
Martin

[Andy01]

Thanks Greg, that’s high praise from you sir!
I really wanted to show off those tendrils, so had to go pretty deep in O3, then do a balancing act with the ha background which is often black clipped.
Took a long time & three processing attempts to get there!
(Insert: Dreams of Remote obs in the country) lol :lol:



Cheers Martin, thanks for the nice comment. :thumbsup:

[strongmanmike]

Great looking shot Andy :thumbsup: this object can really look a little isolated and quite boring...unless you go deep and reveal that lower filamentary curtain, like you have done here, then it looks much more interesting :thumbsup:

Nice work and great looking web site too

Mike

[markas]

Excellent image - as Mike says, it really benefits from the surrounding curtain.


Mark

[Atmos]

Very nice Andy! It's one of those nebulas that I keep thinking in my head as more of a wide field object (suited for your refractor) but being able to attack with with a 10" F/4 with 20 hours, that really does it justice and allows you to go deep!
Excellent rendition! Loving the new website too :thumbsup:

[pfitzgerald]

An image worthy of the introduction to the original BSG andy!

Paul

[Andy01]

Cheers Mike - yes there's 11 hrs of 3nm O3 at f4 so it's pretty deep there - those tendrils are a challenge to process too!
Thanks for the positive feedback on the image and the website too :D



Cheers Mark - thanks for the feedback!



Thanks Colin - I'm loving the 10" - f4 is soooo liberating compared to f8 :)_

[JA]

The image looks great Andy.:thumbsup:
It looks like a sort of human circulatory system in the arm.
Web site is very schmik. !!!

Best
JA

[Andy01]

BSG = Battle Star Galactica? 😊:lol:



Cheers JA, gotta love a good piece of Paradolia 😊 :thumbsup:

[LewisM]

It’s bloody awful Andy.











...awfully good that is

[Andy01]

Lol, well done Lewis :rofl:

[multiweb]

Your best to date mate. The high res is flawless. :thumbsup:
PS: very nice website too.

[Andy01]

Thanks Marc, that means a lot coming from you - Cheers! :D

[LewisM]

Your image was enough to finally swing me from really disliking NB to contemplating using the STC multi-band NB filter on my OSC SX.

I tried the Pencil in RGB and it was a disaster...faint booger.

[Decimus]

A mesmerisingly beautiful image, Andy. So much fine structural complexity. I have never heard or seen images of this object until now. Superb work!:eyepop:

Cheers,
RIchard

[Andy01]

Woohoo! yeah, this target is kinda feint - needed the full 11 hrs of O3 to get those tendrils showing up well. Narrowband images can be cool - and agreed, awful if done badly lol :sadeyes::rofl:



Cheers Richard, reminds me of the Concord in flight :thanx::)

[DJT]

Hi AndyLots of fun wandering through this image. It’s excellent. 👍

[Andy01]

Cheers David, it’s a magnificent target. The incredible thing is that this is 5 light years across, that’s further then the nearest star to Earth (not including our sun) amazing! :eyepop:

[Andy01]

Woohoo! - Astrobin IOTD (https://www.astrobin.com/394436/) today :)

[multiweb]

Your new sig looks like some DNA string.
APODAPOPOAADOPAPODAPODAPOPOAADOPAPO D....

[Andy01]

Hey you’re right! I’ve edited it now thanks :lol:
Gotta love the IIS community spirit, always there to keep you grounded :D