The Hookah Pipe Nebula - NGC 1871 & 1873

[Andy01]

Not too many individual images of this object around - I searched and Googled but couldn’t find any, so maybe this is a world first! ✅

Reminiscent of a middle eastern Hookah Pipe, check out the Ha smoke ring (DEM L99) at 1 O'Clock, (how the heck did that form?) and the mini rosette (DEM L90) at 2:30.
The base N30 A&B has a strong blue O3 region, which is beautifully contrasted by the big yellow star at the centre -Theta Doradus (Mag 4.80).

I spent ages pouring over annotated widefield images looking for a new target in the LMC - googling again since has still found no stand alone colour versions of this Nebula.
The untrodden path does occasionally reward the adventurous with unexpected delights! :cool:

And it's cool to find & shoot new targets for a change, so let's give this pretty little neb in the LMC some love :D

Hope you enjoy, kinda reminds me of Deep Space Nine too :ship2:

Imaging telescope: Sidereal trading carbon fibre 10"F4 Newtonian
Imaging camera:QSI WSG8
Mount:Takahashi NJP Temma-2
Exposure: 10.7 hours - Needs more but Spring in Melbs is cloud central!
HaO3RGB
Location: Light Polluted Suburban Melbourne, Australia

Big one here (https://www.astrobin.com/full/trwewc/0/)

[Bart]

Wow Andy, lovely colour and what...something new...OMG. :eyepop:

Nice.:thumbsup:

[strongmanmike]

Have to say Andy...you and I think the same at times :nerd:...I had this exact field as a target choice for next New Moon :eyepop: Yes that ring is very cool, my framing was to be the portrait of your landscape and include the open cluster that's just off the top right in your image. I recall you beat me to the Mountain or BFG, in Puppis, last year too! :doh: :lol:

The general colouring, collection and spacing of the component objects in this field remind me of the Cone Nebula/Christmas Tree area in our galaxy.

Lovely shot, know why I was considering it now ;) :thumbsup:

Mike

[CeratodusDuck]

I took a bunch of shots of this exact area earlier this year, but the focus was soft and too ashamed to post them.

Really nice Andy

[Andy01]

Lol, cheers Bart - it's a pretty little Neb, deserves it's 15 mins of fame :)



Ha ha! :lol: Great minds think alike eh! :rofl:

It's a cool but neglected object, and you're right about the colour palette being similar to the Christmas Tree/cone. :thumbsup:

There may also be some S2 present but the clouds thwarted any attempt to gather any, maybe it will show in your version? Anyway, I always look forward to seeing what you come up with next so go for it! :D



Cheers, we're all still learning here, have another go! :)

[Placidus]

Top shelf. Totally convincing.

The lone bright star is the crowning jewel.

[gregbradley]

A really sensational image there Andy. Love it. Such great colour and interest.
And something new - woohoo.

Greg.

[Andy01]

Cheers M&T - Say what are your thoughts on that smoke ring - how on earth did that form? :question:




Thanks very much Greg! Yes, and now for something completely different... :D

[Placidus]

Nice question Andy. There are four mechanisms for the formation of smoke rings in general as opposed to in this image:

(1) The most common would be a cloud of gas and dust condenses under gravity, young stars start to form deep inside, and their radiation gradually blasts away a hollow cocoon. There are several examples of this in the image, including the base and body of the hooka, and one toward about 2 o'clock. A wonderful example is "Snoopy's beach ball" in Puppis.

(2) A supernova remnant. There would be no central star. The ring would be strong in SII and NII, which is a give-away. There's a lovely example in the Chalice Nebula which looks very like this.

(3) A Wolf-Rayett nebula. There would normally be a single very bright star in the centre. Given this image is of another galaxy, at extreme distance, this seems unlikely.

(4) A planetary nebula. The white dwarf would be a tiny dot visible in the centre. Again given this is in another galaxy, and planetary nebulas are tiny, that would be most unlikely.

If I had to take a guess, I'd guess a SNR, but I'd love to see the SII and NII images.

Best,
Mike

[Andy01]

Now that's a fascinating dissertation, thanks heaps for your thoughts on this. :thumbsup: I found a few scientific papers on LMC structures out there in googleland, when I was researching for this target. I'll have to unearth them and have a read. :D
Sadly I currently have no S2 or N2 Data, but maybe I'll try and gather some now!
Thanks again :thumbsup::thanx:

[multiweb]

Nice find. Cool object to image. :thumbsup:

[Peter Ward]

Nice.

I'm picking up on a slight overall softness and on closer (OK, I'm being picky) inspection there are a few weirdly shaped stars coloured and desaturated zones in the background....if it were Torvill and Dean I'd hold up a 7.5 for technical and a 9.5 for artistic. :)

I must revisit this area myself, weather and equipment permitting (camera in the repair shop at present :sadeyes:)

No matter...I really like the framing of this one! Well done.

[Andy01]

Merci Marc! Cheers :D



All good Peter, this really does need more data & a decent sky, but hey, it’s new & exiting & everyone else can come play here now! :lol:

[Paul Haese]

It's an interesting and compelling composition you have captured here Andy. I like the colour too, which is rich but the full res does show the warts. Seeing might have been a bit soft for your capture and this has made sharpening it difficult (almost impossible).


You can almost be reassured that someone has imaged this before as an individual. Maybe not posted out there in Neverland. Especially in the last 10 years. There are few if any regions that have not been captured. Most are very isolated little pockets. Something as bright as this might well have been captured. In any event you should have one of the very first images of it, probably the first colour image. Similar to when I first capture the Wolf nebula (SL17). Well done for walking off the beaten track.

[rustigsmed]

interesting image Andy, really like the composition and colour.

Cheers

Russ

[marco]

Lovely field Andy, LMC is a real gold mine of targets, I have already placed so many in my to-do list that I believe is gonna take me at least couple of seasons to complete it :P
Clear skies
Marco

[Andy01]

Well if you can find one, I'll pay that - until then I'm claiming it as a World first! :lol:



Goodonya Russ, thanks for nice compliment! :thumbsup:



Cheers Marco - Looking forward to seeing your collection of new treasures from the LMC! :)

[Paul Haese]

Ok I like a challenge. Here you go, this is one. Not great but it is the object and it is colour.

http://jsmastronomy.30143.n7.nabble.com/NGC-1871-1873-1869-LMC-td1055.html


There were a few others. One on Wikipedia but only part of the region.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC_1871#/media/File:NGC_1871_DSS.jpg


:P:P

[strongmanmike]

Here ya go :whistle:, pretty recent too This mosaic is a corker! (https://astrospace-page.blogspot.com/2019/04/1060-hours-image-of-the-large-magellanic-cloud-chile.html) done at a similar image scale to Andy's shot and here is another (https://astrodrudis.com/large-magellanic-cloud-nebulous-systems/). One could just look at an individual panel from each mozaic, or easily crop out the neb and have a nice high res colour close up shot of Andy's exact field.

While Googling just these nebula alone returns few individual close up colour images, indicating few have bothered pointing their field limited gear just at this specific bit of neb, (so certainly not a popular target to image by itself), if you Google LMC you get a different result ;)

Mike

[Andy01]

Lol - Must be cloudy over your way Paul, leaving you plenty of spare time :lol:
But to give credit where it's due - it's certainly not great but it is an image and it is in colour! :thumbsup:
(but the Wiki one doesn't count as it cropped from a DSS survey.) :zzz:





Yes Mike, I'm familiar with those lovely mosaics - It was studying Don Goldman's published version (https://astrodonimaging.com/gallery/large-magellanic-cloud-and-surrounding-structures/) of this region that inspired me to feature NGC 1871/73 this time. ;)

To satisfy those with pedantic tendencies :whistle: I'll revise my claim to instead be the first HaO3RGB High Res, half decent, stand alone image of this nebula. :2thumbs: :lol:

Thanks for playing all :)

[strongmanmike]

:innocent:....all good fun :P



Oh come now... you are just being pedantic Andy :lol: :thumbsup:

Don's is also HaOIIIRGB though :question: :lol:

[Andy01]

Hey I can put my pedantic hat on when necessary too :D - Don's wide field image is not a stand alone pic of 1871/73 :whistle:

[strongmanmike]

T'is so! :P...just has more in it.....

are we excessively concerned with minor details or rules and being over scrupulous..? :question: :lol:

[CosmicEcho]

Does this mean that every image is a worlds first? After all, every image is unique, a different FOV, exposure times, and processing. Isn't this part of the sky "rarely imaged" :question:

[strongmanmike]

Hey look what I just stumbled across (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=150747&highlight=NGC1871)...taken back in 2016 by Fred Vanderhaven

Fred also had trouble finding another one at the time too and you even commented Andy :lol:

Doh! ;)

Mike

[Andy01]

Well done Mike! Great detective work & no argument from me- truthfully I remember most images and I had searched IIS, Astrobin & Google, but I had completely forgotten about this one so full credit to Fred who it seems I owe an apology to, his was definitely the first High res, colour image! :thumbsup:
Still a darn nice image too & it’s far better than mine :)

On a side note, I miss Fred’s posts here :question:

[strongmanmike]

I wasn't looking for it, I was just getting the link to Freds web site, to give to a friend and when his page opened up I just had a quick look around at his images because I hadn't seen his work for a while and I love images :D...and then I found it pure fluke, I then did a search on IIS because I remembered he posted that image :thumbsup:

Mike