Abell 66 in Saggitarius, a real faint one.

[tornado33]

I hadnt had a plan as what to image after the footy tonight so decided to take a "tour" with the argo navis by pointing the scope roughly to Saggitarus and selecting "tour" and planetary nebulae brighter then mag 16. First one that came up was Abell 66 so decided to give it a go.

5x10 mins ISO 800, UHCS filter, 10 inch f5.6 newtonian hand guided, modded 350D camera, high cloud ending proceedings, I would have gone for 1.5 hours if I could.
Not many pics on the Web of this particular Abell object. This might be one of the very few colour pics of it.

The Horsehead nebula is blindingly bright compared to this :D
Scott

[ballaratdragons]

Wow, Scott, that IS faint!!! Nicely imaged!!!!!!!

[xstream]

You never cease to amaze me, Scott. Just finding the target would be a feat on it's own.

Well done! :thumbsup:

[h0ughy]

;)awe come on guys he is pulling your leg, its the reflection of that bright star to the right - honest:whistle:.

How did you find it? How did you know you had the image in the bag? and moreover, how you dont upgrade to a full autoguided system is unknown to me - just imaging how long you could go for then!!!!!!:thumbsup:

Well done mate:thumbsup:

[Starkler]

Great stuff Scott.
I always enjoy seeing images of the rarely seen stuff:)

[Garyh]

Boy thats a faint one alright!!
Could you see it on the raw frames?
great stuff! :thumbsup:

[Ric]

Great capture Scott, I had to look twice before I saw it.

A fantastic effort

[Alchemy]

buckle up looks like were going deep...deep...deep..
well done

[alan meehan]

another for the album,nice pic scott

[tornado33]

Thanks all :)
I at first took a 90 sec ISO 1600 shot, and thought I could just see a hint of it there but not sure, to be certain I had the right area I aligned the argo navis off a star only a few degrees away, then made sure it was exactly on the planetary it indicated, located a guidestar then went ahead and took the images.

The Argo Navis is a real Godsend here worth its weight in gold :)
Scott

[Dr Nick]

Its a real faint one all right, well done capturing! ;)

[dcalleja]

Scott
In the Abell Planetary Obs Guide its rated as mag 16.9. Sighted visually with a 22" scope in v.dark skies!! The comparison pic in the guide is nowhere near as good as yours though.