NGC3199/NGC 3247 in H alpha-Qhy8/ED80

[seeker372011]

NGC 3199 is a fascinating object in itself-a moving (?) Wolf Rayet star 18 which is producing a distorted bubble or ring in the surrounding uniform interstellar medium, sculpting fantastic shapes, the brightest part of which I like to think of as the smile nebula

In this 2.38 x 1.58 degree field we can also see NGC 3247 in the top of the frame -which google says is an open cluster- Hartung's actually says John Herschel made an error in describing this object as a "decidedly nebulous group".

http://books.google.com.au/books?id=EQAYGmZT0o8C&pg=RA2-PA189&lpg=RA2-PA189&dq=NGC+3247&source=web&ots=vG6jhSh-1c&sig=UVE0lEKCxYZon0oCmvws75yRHvM&hl=en

well it certainly looks nebulous to me.

There is also a another small but relatively bright nebulous patch in the bottom right near NGC 3199 which I am unable to identify, and of course the whole region appears suffused with nebulosity.

Its all quite fascinating and relatively less imaged region of the sky

boring details:
90 minutes of exposure-15 minute sub frames (actually shot two hours but found a trial 30 min sub was too ambitious for my system and had to toss it)
Camera: QHY 8
Filter: Baader 7 nm H Alpha
Scope: ED80
Mount: CG5 Autoguided (Orion DSCI/PHD Guiding)
Location: Winston Hills -Suburban Sydney
more noise then I like but I stretched the image to reveal more of the extensive nebulosity

larger image:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/91784720@N00/2479902806/sizes/o/

thanks for looking

in particular any tips on managing noise and improving processing would be appreciated
Narayan

[[1ponders]]

Nice Narayan. :thumbsup: How are you finding the Qhy8 after the DSLR?

[seeker372011]

I really like the fact that I don't need to spend so much time taking darks...just for comparison here is an image of the same set of objects taken last year June I think -same scope but with my modded 300D-at ISO 1600- and 2 hours and 10 minutes of exposure (10 minute subs)-with an astronomik 13 nm filter . In many ways not a like for like comparison but maybe indicative

The DSLR is a little bit less sensitive I feel and a heck of a lot harder to process the DSLR images because of intrinsic noise

on the other hand more cables and stuff with the QHY and need AC power for the camera-my canon usually ran off a battery especially if I went anywhere with it. The QHY is heavier and much more expensive of course
Narayan

[glenc]

Thanks Narayan for this interesting image. I have been waiting for someone to make an image of this area.
John Herschel found NGC 3247 (h3250) but his position was out by about 11'. (see below)
Dunlop found NGC 3199 (D332) but his position was out by about 1 degree in declination.
Dunlop wrote "A very faint ray of nebula, about 2' broad, and 6' or 7' long, joining two small stars at the south following extremity, which are very slightly involved, but their lustre is not diminished from that of similar small stars in the field. The north extremity also joins a group of small stars, but they are not involved. Figure 15 " (attached)
I often look at these two nebulae with my 12" dob.

Here are the notes from http://www.ngcic.org/dss/dss_n3200.asp
"NGC 3247. JH's position is approximate. Though he has three observations of
this, only one -- and possibly not even that -- was made on the meridian. The
only thing matching his descriptions "Stars involved in evident nebula," "A
decidedly nebulous group," and "There is a nebulous appearance, which merits
re-examination," is the HII region I've listed in the table with its attached
cluster. Brian Skiff identifies this cluster as "Westerlund 1", but Brent
Archinal in "Star Clusters" corrects this to "Westerlund 2".

Brent also notes that Collinder 220 is often mistakenly called "N3247", as it
is in ESO -- and indeed was here until I stumbled across the little cluster in
the 2MASS Extended Source Catalog. The nebula shows nicely in the DSS2 red
image where it is about 6 x 4 arcmin across.

The correct identification was first made by Stewart on a Harvard plate (and
included by Dreyer as an IC2 Note), but his position is about 3 arcmin
southwest of the center of the object. - Dr. Harold G. Corwin, Jr."

[RB]

Fascinating indeed Narayan, thank you for sharing.

You've done extremely well especially doing 15 min subs, stars are nice and round and focus spot on.

As for improving noise, the only thing I can think of is using shorter subs. :shrug:

Anyway the QHY8 looks like it's a real performer.

:thumbsup:

[madbadgalaxyman]

Hi there, imaging people, and our resident "astro-history + NGC/IC" Guru who is otherwise known as glenc,

The region near NGC 3247 is NGC 3247 / RCW 49 /Westerlund 2

I am not going to sort out the exact Identifications here, as I am "not one of those fanatics who do that sort of thing", but I do know Westerlund 2.

(note: the extreme Very Massive young star cluster Westerlund 1 "ain't got nothing to do with this", as it is in Ara!)

Westerlund 2 refers to the very compact and distant star cluster on one side of the nebula. This is a highly obscured ( 6 magnitudes of dimming due to foreground dust!) but very rich (some 7000 solar masses!) cluster which is a very severe test for amateur imagers and Deep Sky observers.

We are currently discussing Westerlund 2 in the observation reports forum:

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?p=1072683#post107268 3

Between me and Dana, I am sure that we could vastly improve the wikis on a lot of objects, but I don't contribute to Wikipedia because I feel that knowledge without attribution to a particular author is without value.

[madbadgalaxyman]

Oh, and here is a pretty picture of the Massive young Star Cluster known as Westerlund 1, on one side of the nebula.
This is a composite of two DSS images, downloaded from the Aladin database and atlas
(don't pay any attention to the colours, as they bear no relation to reality)
Dana (user: Weltevreden SA) says that the cluster is only 3 arcminutes across.

160128

The scene here is somewhat reminiscent of a close-up image of the very-very-compact cluster NGC 3603 and its attendant nebula; NGC 3603 is also one of the most massive young star clusters in our own Galaxy.