Meet the Neighbours...

[Andy01]

Overshadowed by it's more famous neighbour 47 Tuc, NGC 362 is a young Globular cluster, located in the constellation Tucana in the Southern Hemisphere, slightly north of the Small Magellanic Cloud.

Pictured also is the blueish NGC 346, and it's many Ha rich nebulous companions, which resemble cherry blossoms in spring.
NGC 346 is the brightest star-forming region in the neighbouring Small Magellanic Cloud galaxy, some 210 000 light-years away from Earth.

This was also testing the latest round of tilt and eccentricity corrections done to the Tak TOA130 ota & focuser combined with the TOA/FS reducer.

Seems all of my ASV colleague Stefan Buda's hard work has paid off, yielding round stars across the frame at last! :)

Large Image Here (https://www.astrobin.com/full/4winpj/0/)

Taken using Chroma 5nm Ha, 3nmO3, Lum & RGB filters during Covid iso from my light polluted backyard in Suburban Melbourne, Australia.

Processed in AstroPixel Processor, PS CC2020 , with Starnet ++, Nik & Topaz plugins.

PS: Just for fun and art's sake, a starless version (https://www.astrobin.com/full/i6yv1g/0/) of the NB masters is included. :D

[gregbradley]

A wonderful image Andy.
You really are the King of Creative framing!
Greg

[Placidus]

Superb, Andy. Taking in the big globular made for a very interesting perspective. You've gone much deeper than we did ages ago in our "duck rose and goldfish" version.

[strongmanmike]

A very nice, sanity preserving, Lockdown (:help2::drink: :scared2:) result Andy

NGC 362 is one of my favourite globular clusters to view visually :thumbsup:

Mike

[multiweb]

+1 Superb field and process. One for the cool wall. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[Andy01]

Cheers Greg, I spent some time working this one one out, it's always good to mix things up a little. Glad you liked it :)



Duck & Goldfish eh? You guys are Paradolia royalty alright, thanks for the encouragement :thumbsup:



Thanks Mike, I'll look at that as Stefan was kind enough to make an eyepiece adapter for my 'scope as well - was hoping to have some folks over for a mini star party but Chairman Dan has put paid to all that - must put it to use soon! :D



Merci Marc - kind of you to say so, Salut! :cheers:

[Ant0nio]

Nice one Andy, can't fault the star shapes & I agree with Gregs comment on your framing.
:thumbsup:,
Tony

[Ryderscope]

Thanks for posting this fine image Andy. It is a fascinating area to explore both visually and to image. A great rendition :thumbsup:

[Andy01]

Cheers Antonio, probably one of the very few good things to come from this Covid enforced layoff is time to work on fiddly things like spacing, tilt & collimation - all of which are 99% sorted thanks to Stefan Buda now :)



Very kind of you Rodney, seems both you & Mike have stimulated my interest in visual again - must try that again one day! :lol::lol::lol:

[Atmos]

Very nice Andy! This and the SMC in general has been my nemesis for a few years. Every time I point a telescope here I find myself with 3.5" seeing! Even with your larger image scale you're SMC region still looks sharper than what I've managed to achieve.

My only criticism is that NGC 362 is all magenta and lacking the RGB :)

[topheart]

Nice neighbors there Andy!
Very well done!
Cheers,
Tim

[Andy01]

Thanks Colin, this was very challenging to process as indeed any broadband image is from the 'burbs. The stars are all RGB, but maybe LP heavy sky conditions are limiting the colour. I generally only shoot 2-3min subs for RGB stars, and depending on the weather, only for a total of 30-60mins ea.
Cheers
A



Onya Tim, just trying to be friendly with the locals :lol:

[marc4darkskies]

A lovely image Andy! :thumbsup: The nebulosities in the SMC are a great target! Nicely done!

Maybe I'm the minority here but I'd have framed the scene to exclude the glob and hero the SMC instead. Globs look best with more res IMO.

[Andy01]

Thanks Marcus, that's encouraging feedback as anything with LUM in it from suburbia is a pita to process! :lol:

Framing? Nah, resolution notwithstanding, I like the glob, makes for an interesting field. :D