Eta Carinae and Homunculus with 5x powermate

[SkyViking]

I decided to image Eta Carinae and the Homunculus nebula with a 5x powermate to see what level of detail could be squeezed out.
I got some interesting results and a surprisingly detailed image which I compiled into a little presentation of this fascinating object.

Details are:
10” Newton / ToUCam Pro SC1
Televue 5x Powermate
Combined exposures: 1046 x 1/25s, 1811 x 0.75s, 200 x 2.75s all unfiltered and finally 111 x 1.0s with OIII filter.

There is a noticeable expansion compared with David Malin's AAT image. It would be great if anyone knows when that image was taken? I have searched high and low but can't find a date anywhere. The image in question is AAT 45: http://www.aao.gov.au/images/captions/aat045.html

Hope you enjoy :)

Regards,
Rolf

[strongmanmike]

Super duper :thumbsup::thumbsup:

Mike

[Lester]

Very nice image Rolf, showing fine detail.

[AlexN]

Amazing effort mate!

Well done!

[spacezebra]

WoW! Thankyou for posting this image - stunning to say the least.

Cheers Petra d.

[Kevnool]

How Cool.
Great Target.
Cheers Kev.

[pgc hunter]

sweet shot of the Homunculus there!

[rogerg]

Excellent stuff :thumbsup: An image I have long wanted to see from an amateur. Last time I asked about images of this on IIS no one ended up coming forward who had imaged it.

[CoolhandJo]

Very very nice. Imformative and Great detail.

[seeker372011]

very well done indeed

[Dennis]

Fantastic work Rolf along with an excellent presentation of your results.

Cheers

Dennis

[kinetic]

Apologies Rolf,

I initially thought this resolution too incredible for a webcam
and 10" scope with Powermate, until I noticed the exposure times
on the extreme left of your image.
You have certainly beaten the seeing at that FL with some very
short exposures and lots of them...Eddie T style.

Congratulations and extremely well done!

Steve

[bert]

Thats a really neat image, Thanks for sharing and thinking out of the box.

Brett

[multiweb]

Wow!... That's a very cool shot! :thumbsup: I remember seeing this in a 21" dob but I never managed to image it.

[troypiggo]

Indeed that is very cool. Certainly unique and effective result.

[Garyh]

That is soo cool :thumbsup:
Love the M42 as well!
cheers Gary

[telecasterguru]

Best image I have seen for a while. Great.

Frank

[Hagar]

Brilliant Rolf simply brilliant. and with a web cam also.

Well done.

[SkyViking]

Thanks Mike, glad you liked it.



Cheers, yes there was certainly more detail there than what I expected myself too.



Thank you Alex :)



Thanks very much Petra.



Thanks, yes I love Eta Carinae - also visually in the eyepiece it's a feast :)



Thank you :)



Cheers, thank you Roger. I did another shot of it back in 2006, but this one has higher resolution. It's interesting that we can actually see the expansion so clearly!



Thanks, I like to piece together these little 'posters'.



Thank you very much.



Thanks Dennis, I like doing these as they provide something a little out of the ordinary.



Thank you very much Steve. Yes the webcam really excels in this area - I'm always trying to image something which I know I won't just do 10x better once I buy a big CCD cam. So 'high resolution deep sky' might be my specialty right for the time being. :)



Thank you Brett :)



Thanks Marc, I would love to see it in a 21", must show some good detail there...:eyepop:



Thank you very much. I haven't seen other images at this resolution either. It is definitely a fascinating little nebula.



Thank you Gary, and thanks for liking the M42 as well. That one is actually with a Meade 2x barlow, but the Televue 5x powermate is way superior. Would be interesting to image Trapezium with the powermate... :)



Cheers Frank, thank you :)



Thank you Doug :)

[Ric]

That's a very detailed image Rolf. I think you have done a wonderful job in capturing that one.

Cheers

[iceman]

Fantastic result, excellent work indeed.

[Octane]

Rolf,

Your high resolution up-close work is stunning.

Would love to see you try this on Antares and M4. Would your setup bag the both of them? Or are they too far apart?

H

[davidpretorius]

Fantastic stuff Rolf!

[SkyViking]

Thank you for your kind words.



Thank you Mike, it's always fun to produce something a little out of the ordinary :)



Thank you Humayun. I checked in Starry Night and M4 is actually 1.18 degrees from Antares. So that might require a serious mosaic if I want to get them both in the image with a 5x powermate...:eyepop: The FOV of the Homunculus shot is only around 60" x 50".
But aiming the powermate at the center of M4 (or Omega Centauri) would be interesting!
I'm thinking of trying some of the small bright planetary nebulae as well. Any good candidates? It would have to be bright for it to work at the long FL.



Thank you very much.