PDA

View Full Version here: : The Whirling Dervish Nebula- NGC 3247


seeker372011
09-05-2021, 07:09 AM
I imaged this object way back in May 2009. At that time I found no amateur images of this object. In fact, catalogues listed the object as a galactic open cluster - and Hartung wrote that John Herschel had made a mistake in describing this object as " a decidedly nebulous group". Well Hartung was clearly wrong, and there is plenty of nebulosity here.


And in possibly an extreme case of pareidolia I saw a whirling dervish- and decided to name the object accordingly. Of course I posted my image - and floated the name here on IIS.

12 years later i revisited this target over the course of several nights in April, capturing 16 hours of data- and here is the result. Can you see the flowing twirling skirts? the raised arms? the turban ? I cant unsee this - and stand by the name!

I see this name being used by other amateur astronomers as well, so it does seem to have caught on- though some seem to have trouble seeing the whirling dervish. Come on surely it’s nowhere as bad as the Running Chicken is it ?

anyway its a really interesting area and not often imaged, though much more often these days than in 2009 especially here on IIS

Comments and suggestions welcome, thanks for looking.

( ED80/ 8 hours with Baader 7 nm H Alpha Filter and QQHY 183MM and 8 hours with ZWO ASI 183MC and Optolong LmExtreme)

Larger image

https://flic.kr/p/2kXajtZ

Robert_T
09-05-2021, 08:30 AM
Great background story and image Narayan; wow that's quite a legacy as the name has certainly stuck. ANd in your image the way you have orientated it, it is a clear as clear can be... I think many image this 90degrees to this and that may be why it's not seen. And I agree with you on the running chicken, that one is mad... still cant see it ;-)