Up close and personal with the Southern Ring (NGC 3132)

[Dave882]

The Southern Ring Nebula (or Eight Burst Nebula) aka NGC 3132 - a tiny but very interesting planetary nebula in Vela.

I've had a few stabs at this one but this is the first time I've really poured some serious hours into it - 22hrs over 6 nights. I was fortunate enough to have some absolutely spectacular seeing conditions on 2 nights (the rest on the good side of average).

Approx 22hours using the L-Ultimate dual narrow-band filter in 120sec & 300sec subs + 45min RGB in 30sec subs for stars. Most was binned 2x2 but the nights of excellent seeing I left un-binned.

A very challenging target to reveal both the very faint outer shells along with the intricate detail nestled into its bright core - all the while trying to maintain natural looking colour and detail. GHS and range-masks helped greatly and I was pleased to reveal the faint outer-halos that I've seen on a couple of other images. Hopefully I didn't overdo it too much but interested to hear your thoughts too...

Stacking, channel extraction and LP removal in APP, processing in PI and final tweaks in LightRoom.

Larger version full field (https://storage.googleapis.com/dso-browser.com/astrophotography/picture-600e90a28304215e1ae8d9d8f8f0518e-original.tif)
Larger version crop (https://storage.googleapis.com/dso-browser.com/astrophotography/picture-decfe8da2217381217bc6a2f4462039c-original.tif)

C14 non edge @f7 with the Starizona reducer LF
EQ8 pro
Asi2600mc pro gain 100
Asi220mm / celestron OAG
ZWO EAF
ASIAIR pro / APP / PI / LR

Thanks for looking!

[strongmanmike]

Excellent work Dave, there are very few images showing the faint and quite extensive layers of outer shells on this baby, well done :thumbsup:

Mike

[Startrek]

Dave,
Wow , excellent image of a such a difficult target
This PN is so tiny and faint , yet you’ve captured so much detail
Well done !!

How much data was captured when the moon was up as I’ve noticed since Mono imaging with a dedicated 3nm Oiii filter , the moons glare really retards detail and adds so much more noise than obviously the Ha and Sii counterparts. It surely must affect the Oiii in dual bands as well.

Martin

[Dave882]

Cheers Mike yeah they’re pretty hard to reveal so stoked when I could get them in the end. Had to stretch things pretty hard and did my best not to over cook it with clear nights pretty rare lately I’m very lucky to get what I did!

[Dave882]

Thanks Martin I appreciate you comments and encouragement! Ngc3132 has a very bright core but the outer regions are extremely faint which makes processing a challenge to get one without sacrificing the other.

I had 12 hrs under the moon, but the final 6 were under a full moon very close to target. This data was pretty noisy and I almost chucked it but managed to salvage it in the stack luckily. I’m not sure the noise was restricted to the o3 channel as it seemed to affect both (to a degree). Hard to say…

I was very fortunate to have 2 moonless nights in some of the best seeing I’ve ever had here. This is where pretty much all the fine detail came from. I’ve attached a screenshot of a single frame and my ASIAIR guiding on this night. My 20yr old eq8 still getting the job done!!

[Startrek]

The Skywatcher EQ8 Google Groups forum members ( me included) would drool at those guiding numbers , almost flat lining , incredible !!
I thought 0.45 was tight on my EQ8-R down south, Wow !!😲
M.

[floyd_2]

Mate you're a bit of a wizard pulling that level of detail out of the Eight Burst. Lovely shot, and expertly processed. You've obviously put a lot of time and effort into this and it's been well worth it. Definitely one for the pool room.

[Dave882]

Thanks Dean. And yes, definitely spent a lot of time processing this one -quite a few versions trying different combinations of tools before I was happy with the overall result. The real difference was GHS (generalised hyperbolic stretch tool). That tool is absolute magic allowing you to do a heavy stretch in the faint areas while retaining good detail in the bright. But even then it's so challenging get the right balance

[Retrograde]

I'm a bit late to this (as I haven't been on here very much of late) but that is a stunning amount of detail on such a small object. Great stuff!

[Dave882]

Thanks Pete I appreciate you dropping by for a look! Yes I was quite happy with how it came out - there quite a bit going on in this little gem if you peer long enough at it!!