Helix Neb

[rogerg]

G'day all,

It's exceedingly rare that I post deep space shots these days. This is a lazy image from the other day when I used the observatory for the first time in ages, primarily to check it's all still running, and "testing the water" for doing some more astronomy.

I had autoguiding working but not active for this image. Couldn't find a darn guide star. So it's un-guided, hence there's some star trailing.

Manual "yeah, looks alright" colour calibration. ;)

Auto dark subtraction was used, accidentily. Oops. So no bias or flats :(

Nice to have some colour coming from the scope again :) Very blue star in the centre!

Roger.

[AlexN]

Wow thats a narrow field of view! You should line up some clear weather for a mosaic! :)

[winensky]

Now Thats up close and personal. That star looks blue in most shots I see. Is it the core star ?

[AlexN]

the central star is responsible for the nebulosity around it.

[bluescope]

Shame you didn't have autoguiding Roger I think you would have got some nice detail on the inner parts of the ring ... if you know what I mean !

:thumbsup:

[rogerg]

Yeah, agreed :) It was quite frustrating that there was no guide star within range... or within range of any of the other 4 objects I tried before saying to myself "forget it, just go with the brightest and short exposures" :)

I know what would solve the problem... larger guide chip .. $$$ :)

Ahh well, such is life :)

[Hagar]

One very big Helix. Nice colour and lovely round stars. I would love to see this done as a mosaic showing the rest of this great nebula. The central stars have retained great colour.
Well done.

[Bassnut]

Roger, oh yeah, close up on a dim object, youve got balls :D.

Real hard, I like it. :thumbsup:

[rogerg]

You are joking right? :) One reason I almost didn't photograph the Helix is because it's so unusually bright for my choice of objects :) But hey, I haven't done much for months so I'll let you off :)



I was surprised to have so much colour in the stars, really surprised. Somehow as luck would have it they haven't ended up over exposed, very rare for my NABG camera :)

Thanks for all the responses everyone, much appreciated. I might try a Mosaic in the next new moon period, but don't hold your breath waiting ;)

[Bassnut]

OK, well, Ive only imaged Ha (for lum) on Helix, and its a pain. Like to see something of yours less "unusually bright" at that FL :D.

BTW, what NABG cam is this taken with.

[Bassnut]

Checked yr site (very smick) I guess the ST7.

[rogerg]

You beat me to it :) Yeap, ST7 - wishing it were an ST8. :whistle: (bigger guide chip if nothing else!)

The stuff I typically enjoy doing most is finding faint galaxy clusters and the like. Seeing what I can get out of mag 16 - mag 20 objects. But, while I say typically, I haven't done much for months, so ya know, these things come and go.

It is fun to do some brighter colour stuff now and then.

Focal length is a curse and a blessing. It obviously makes tracking and image quality somewhat of a challenge, but when things work, I just love the scale, getting those tiny faint galaxies to have some shape :D

[strongmanmike]

On ya Roger :thumbsup:

Ah huh! You are moving to the dark side, look out!...you may become a fully fledged astrophotographer... :scared:

Mike