NGC456 and Surrounds

[Ryderscope]

NGC456 is one of a number of areas of nebulosity captured in this image. The area is located in the constellation of Tucana at the south eastern corner of the Small Magellanic Cloud.

This frame is part of a VERY LARGE mosaic that I am building for the SMC though there is enough of interest going on here to publish this image separately. The processing was also an experiment with building a synthetic luminance from the HaRGB data with a view to saving imaging time with such a large project. When done the final mosaic will probably be in the order of 15 frames capturing HaRGB for each frame. I actually started capturing data on this two years ago and have decided now to get serious about getting the job done. So far I have 10 panels of data out of the estimated 15 so watch this space :)

Link to image on Astrobin here. (https://astrob.in/71haci/0/)
Click on image in Astrobin for larger version.

Comments and critique welcome.

Clear skies,
Rodney.

[Placidus]

Well done, Rodney.

This is a difficult area. Your field is wider than ours. A long time ago we had a go at part of it in our "Mermaid's Pantry" shot. Definitely difficult. The really interesting stuff is faint, and it's the difference between H-alpha and OIII that makes it come alive. You've got all the OIII stuff in blue-green in your RGB image. Not sure what I'm really trying to say other than "this is a hard patch of sky to image well, and you've succeeded."

The giant mosaic seems a very challenging but worthwhile undertaking.

Best,
M

[strongmanmike]

Hey, missed this one Rod :shrug:...wow! awesome sounding project, good luck with it, a nice teaser here too, looking good ;) what's the image scale?
Look forward to the finished product :thumbsup:

Mike

[Ryderscope]

Thanks MnT and Mike. The image scale with my set up comes in at 1.64” px which is find for the average seeing at my location. Interesting observations with the OIII actually particularly with the fine images of this area posted recently which included the extra channel. Very tempting to add it in to the project with the risk of making it much more grandiose than originally planned. Funny how these things seem to grow :)

Cheers, Rodney.