A planetary, a galaxy and distant clusters

[Paul Haese]

This image is a little off the beaten track. It is off NGC246 and NGC255. 246 is a planetary nebula commonly known as the skull nebula. On it's own it is a little dull but when you include in the field NGC255 which is a face on galaxy, it all looks a bit more interesting. Then there are the myriad of galaxies in the back ground. I particularly like the lenticular galaxy at the left bottom of the field.


The image contains 39.5 hours of integration. Taken with the RC12 and STXL.Ha 540 minutes:OIII 570 minutes:Luminance 705 minutes:red 205 minutes:green 155 minutes:blue 200 minutes.


Click here (http://paulhaese.net/NGC246.html) for the larger image.

[Andy01]

An interesting pairing Paul - gee they must be dim if it takes 40 odd hrs to render these - well done! :thumbsup:

[Placidus]

Beautiful. We know from experience the skull PN takes a lot of exposure to see much. You've gone further and produced a very sharp image.

[strongmanmike]

Yeah although quite lovely, I guess you're right, it is a slightly boring object on its own :confuse3: but nice work getting that background galaxy in, reminiscent of the M57 and IC 1296 field, adds a bit of extra interest...Andy will like it too, that you didn't bung the skull in the middle of the frame :P :thumbsup:

Mike

[multiweb]

Very cool fov. The galaxy in the field adds to the shot. Quite like that planetary as well. It's got an interesting structure. Couldn't see the clusters though. Still saw a few faint fuzzies at the bottom left. :thumbsup:

[codemonkey]

Top shelf, Paul, that's really classy!

I'm getting picky here, but the image feels a bit top heavy, though if you'd composed it with the main attractions further down you'd have lost that little lenticular... :shrug:

[gregbradley]

A top shelf image there Paul.

Greg.

[Atmos]

Brilliant image Paul! I’ve attempted the Skull once and has a pretty awful result but what you’ve achieved is top notch. Its rendering is up there with the best I’ve seen from an amateur, 40 odd hours certainly helps though.
Balancing it a bit with the barred spiral is good too, along with its long distant galaxy cluster in the background :thumbsup:

[Joshua Bunn]

lovely capture Paul, pleasing colour and framing.


Josh

[Bart]

Very nice, Paul, appears uncomplicated, easy to look at, and defines the distance variations of the field well. :thumbsup:

[Paul Haese]

Thanks everyone for the comments. Much appreciated.

[glenc]

That is an interesting field Paul and the PN is very sharp. In my 12" NGC246 is faint with a UHC filter.

[alpal]

That's a great picture Paul,
there are also faint galaxies everywhere.


cheers
Allan