Lobster Fra Diavolo

[Andy01]

Cataloged as NGC 6357, the Lobster Nebula houses the open star cluster Pismis 24 near its centre, home to unusually bright and massive stars. The overall blue glow near the inner star forming region results from the emission of ionised hydrogen gas. The surrounding nebula, holds a complex tapestry of gas, dark dust, stars still forming, and newly born stars. The intricate patterns are caused by complex interactions between interstellar winds, radiation pressures, magnetic fields, and gravity. NGC 6357 spans about 400 light years and lies about 8,000 light years away toward the constellation of the Scorpion. (apod)

When I attempted this one last year, I failed miserably due to a mix of reducer & spacing errors so I really wanted to revisit this and get it right!

My gear is now (finally) working beautifully! So here it is (https://www.astrobin.com/full/52fkw3/0/) in all it's lurid narrowband glory (with RGB stars) is the classic cosmic crustacean, NGC 6357.

Taken entirely remotely via Stellarmate :D during lockdown #4 in suburban Melbourne.

Chroma Blue: 16x120" (32')
Chroma Green: 16x120" (32')
Chroma Red: 14x120" (28')
Chroma SII 5nm Chroma SII: 14x1200" (4h 40')
Chroma Ha 2" 5nm: 18x1200" (6h) bin 1x1
Chroma OIII 3nm O3: 27x1200" (9h)
Integration: 21h 12

Imaging telescope: Takahashi TOA-130 APO Refractor
Imaging camera: QSI 6162 monochrome
Mount: Takahashi NJP Temma-2
Guiding camera: Starlight Xpress Lodestar Off Axis Guider
Takahashi 67-FL flattener
Stellarmate Raspberry Pi-4

[pkinchington]

Hi Andy,
Another fantastic image! An excellent description of the lobster nebula and the subs you used. Can you tell me whether it is a North American Lobster or our Southern Rock Lobster? :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:
Cheers Pete

P.S. When you said you captured your subs remotely was it remotely from your backyard in Burwood or from a dark sky site? I'm truly amazed if you took RBG subs from Burwood and then used them for this great image.

[PKay]

The hi res is absolutely stunning Andy.

A lot of work and it has paid off.

Very well done :thumbsup:

[Nikolas]

Is that a koala right in the middle???

[Andy01]

You’re absolutely right Nikolas, dang! I can’t unsee that now! :lol:

[gregbradley]

Very dramatic Andy. Your image really shows that giant cavern structure which I have never noticed before.

Lots of detail.

Greg.

[Andy01]

Hi Pete,
All subs were taken from my backyard. :D
I can now make dinner, watch TV :drink: etc in the comfort of my warm lounge room while the 'scope happily does it's thing outside. ;)

I remote in via my laptop to check that all's well, and now rarely encounter issues.
It's taken a LONG time to get it all sorted out, with many hidden problems to solve and much googling, forum checking and chats to the developer. (Jasem is awesomely helpful BTW).
In fact, generally solving one issue then revealed another, but now it's all good and it's been well worth the effort.

Next on the shopping list is a rotator, then perhaps, I'll look into relocating the 'scope at a friend's dark site. :)



Cheers Greg, lowering the contrast in the Ha stack has revealed a lot more than is often seen in this thing.... and nicely collimated optics and a now un-tilted sensor help enormously to reveal subtle details. :D



Thanks Peter! Appreciate your taking the time to comment & the good vibes . :D:cool3:

[strongmanmike]

Well Andy Pandy, yah canni blame your beloved "Chairman Dan", or the sex crazed security guards :lol:, for this one, can ya...huh? ;) Enjoy the extra imaging time :thumbsup:

Great image mate, well done....still cheating though :whistle: :thumbsup:

Mike

[AdamJL]

yeah 21 hours has done this justice. Beats my paltry 5 hour effort!!
Beautiful shot

[Robert_T]

superb Andy, have already been admiring this one over at astrobin. The detail is amazing but I especially love the range of colour you have pulled out all the while retaining a natural feel. Wonderful!

[Andy01]

Thanks for the good vibes Mike. :thumbsup:
I would like to spend this lockdown imaging more often, but Chairman Dan must have a direct hotline to Thor, as it's forecast to be cloudy for the next week at least.:sadeyes:



Cheers Adam, it's a dim target that rewards looong integration time alright! :)



Thanks very much Robert! :D
Being so Ha dominant, this was a very tricky one to balance the colour palette. I was keen though, not to leave anything on the table - so I'm delighted that you like it too! :)

[Paul Haese]

Nothing too extreme in the colouring and saturation here in my opinion. I think the blend of the colours works pretty well. Detail is good even at high resolution. Well done.

[Andy01]

Cheers Paul, only finished it the morning after the Malins closed, oh well - next year maybe :lol:

[Emuhead]

Wow.. the colours used & the cosmic koala pointing the way into the cavern, that i had to double-take due to the detail captured therein, is just stunning. :eyepop:

[Andy01]

Hey thanks Andrew, glad you liked it - I'm happy with the result so at last I can move on from this one, job done! :lol:

Congrats on your AB IOTD today as well :D

[Emuhead]

:lol: The Lobster is cooked, it's done & done right, peace of mind now granted.. ill look forward to the next target then, but I think that Lobster has more to do yet. :thumbsup:

..and thanks for the congrats. Quietly chuffed.

[AdamJL]

revisiting this one... I think this is one of my favourite images. I had no idea this nebula held such secrets. What a beauty.

(ps, RGB stars are the BEST!!)

[Andy01]

Thanks Adam, yes it's a cool target and worth the effort!

it's also Astrobin IOTD (https://www.astrobin.com/52fkw3/0/) today :)

[Emuhead]

and it did! Congrats on your IOTD!

[strongmanmike]

...just out of interest, do I recall you are a judge on A-Bin though?...if so, how does that work?

Mike

[multiweb]

:lol: Pretty good by the look of it. :)

[Atmos]

Very nice Andy, it has a lot more 3D depth than most of the lobster images on the inter webs :)

[Andy01]

Hi Mike & Marc, no conspiracies there - here's how the IOTD three tiered system works...

1) Submissions
120 or so submitters get a random selection of images delivered to them in a queue each day, from which they can nominate up to three images for review. (If they don't believe any are worthy they don't have to nominate all three.) If three or more submitters independently vote for the same image it then appears in the reviewers queue and gets a Bronze star.

2) Reviews
64 reviewers independently work through their daily submitted queues, and again can nominate two or three images for judging. Again if three reviewers select the same ige it goes into the judges queue, and gets a silver star and. ‘Top Pick’.

3) Judging
8 Judges can independently select up to two images per week from their queues, and no more that two in a day. IOTD's get a gold star.
Judges cannot select their own work!

The team is made up of Astrophotographers all over the world, and to my knowledge, none of us have ever physically met one another! So no bias exists.

Full details of the process here ... https://welcome.astrobin.com/iotd

Frankly, I was surprised (and delighted) to get this far, probably shoulda bunged it in the Malins... :shrug:





Thanks Col - I was happy with this result! (at last, after a few failed attempts) :D

[Nikolas]

so far on Astrobin 3 bronze 3 silver, Where's my gold??? :P

[strongmanmike]

Ah ok, I see, thanks for that, as I said, was just curious :thumbsup:

Mike

[Decimus]

:eyepop:Wow, Andy. Yet another superb image. This is the best image of the Lobster I have ever seen. Congrats!