Two Red Nebulae in Carina (new image)

[strongmanmike]

Yay! not a repro :lol:

Battling significant cotton wool cloud, extensive high cloud and a full moon, not to mention the obligatory fluctuating poor to average seeing....over two frustrating nights (including a computer power glitch) I was determined to get some new data :mad2:

This was a difficult processing journey as I had problems with my flats - due the full moon shining down the Newt tube in some orientations throughout the night (oh to have a dome!!!), weak moon affected colour data and the loss of various frames due to cloud aaaand poor seeing was very frustrating :violin: buuuut I salvaged something in the end :thumbsup:

This is the famous duo NGC 3603 and NGC 3576 in Carina.

This nebula duo make a contrasting pair because they are at significantly different distances from us and thus shine in different hues of magenta/red. With NGC 3603 lying something like four times further away than NGC 3576 the extinction by copious interstellar dust makes it appear more of an orange red while NGC 3576's light travels through less dust so suffers less interstellar reddening and is thus more magenta Red.

This is a reasonably long HaOIIIRGB exposure totaling nearly 6 hrs, of course it would have been longer had the above mentioned factors sent by Mr Murphy not arrived :rolleyes:

Two Red Nebula in Carina (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/142555695/original)

and

Close up of NGC 3576 (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/142574367/original)

With the Ram horns of NGC 3576, this is one area that looks good in Ha only IMO so have a look HERE (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/ngc_two_nebulae_in_carina)

Anyway, better luck next time as they say.....

Mike

[TrevorW]

On ya Mike top image good detail reserving my opinion on whether I like the depth of the red, magenta

[marc4darkskies]

Onya mate! A NEW image!!! :)

Looks great at 50% :thumbsup: and I love the Ha version buuuuuut ...

You look to have a slight registration problem - most prominent in the left half of the frame. I think you've shown the colour differential well but, to my taste, 3576 is a tad too pink.

Cheers, Marcus

[alpal]

Hi Mike,
A beautiful photo - great detail & star colours.

I feel you will want to re-process it slightly.
Maybe a little less saturation & less sharpening? - I don't know.
I always find that a week after I process pics that I have
another go on a cloudy night & get more from my data.

[RobF]

Yeah well, that's....moderately incredible :D :cheers:

[Deeno]

Beautiful image!
Never seen green stars before....

[strongmanmike]

Cheers guys :thumbsup:

This was largely an exercise in futility to satisfy an irrational need to image :scared2: :scared3: :P

I mean really, apart from the troublesome high cloud who tries collecting a few minutes of quality (not) RGB data with an F3.8 Newtonian under a full moon through high cloud and without protection from stray moonlight anyway :screwy: :lol:

I was initially only going to bother with the Ha as I think that looks quite nice but in the end I thought come'on Sid you can do it :thumbsup: use the playschool box :P

Thanks for the comments guys...and be thankful...at least it is something new :D

OH yeh..and thanks for your prying eye Marcus, I noticed the slight registration issue too late in the piece and thought meeeah... and tried to disguise it best I could...you eagle eyed inspector you...100% res postings bah!...:lol:

Mike

[strongmanmike]

Err yes, those couple of the stars are not actually Greeeen as such ...rather yellow with a tinge of emerald luster :P

[allan gould]

S. P. E. C. T. A. C. U. L. A. R.

[astronobob]

Lose my breath when see any of your images Mike :eyepop: and another two objects I now know of ? Inspiring work agian, for sure ! !

[TheDecepticon]

Nice image mate. Well done. :thumbsup:

Good result for your trials and tribulations! :)

Just a small side note if I may! I clicked on some of the links you provided, and the one that is for your planetarium http://www.skylab.com.au/ takes me to car insurance. :shrug:

Is there something your not telling us, Mike? ;) :P :lol:

[Paul Haese]

Wow, once again you have produced an image that is sharp and detailed.

When I did my image of this object I did not get nearly as sharp an image (and I have pretty good seeing most of the time), although it could have been the extra 8 inches that has given you some more resolution.

Might have to pick up some OIII on this object next year.

Lovely image, great colour and a real show stopper. I don't know if you have done a repro, but I cannot see any of the issues that others have highlighted.

[strongmanmike]

C. H. E. E. R. S. B. I. G. E. A. R. S.



That's cool, they are between the southern cross and Eta Carina :thumbsup:



:lol: well fancy that, Paul Mayo must no longer have his software site on that domain :question: Anyway it is now HERE (http://www.staratlaspro.com/) ..fixed, thanks for the heads up Graham :thumbsup:



Cheers Paulie, yes the Ha data was o-k but could have been better and no, no repro....just a hard crowd ;) and yes 12" over 4" may have something to do with it...?

Mike

[gregbradley]

Amazing really. You battled lots of adverse conditions and yet produce, what would be on most setups, a stunner.

Greg.

[strongmanmike]

:lol: Cheers Greg, in the end it's about the imaging and making the best of what we have :thumbsup:

Mike

[strongmanmike]

Just added a 100% crop of NGC 3576 (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/142574367)

:)

MIke

[h0ughy]

mike you are a maestro

[Peter Ward]

Not Bad. Registration and star shapes a little out, but as you say, hardy ideal conditions of late...

Is that modest crop of the area?

....I grabbed some data a while back, at what should have been an almost identical (native ) FL to the AG12 ..and made a similar vertical crop but the resulting 16803 field (http://www.atscope.com.au/BRO/gallery137.html) looks wider.... hence my curiosity...as the scale looks a little longer in the AG

[strongmanmike]

Maestro..?? Mental case more like it :lol:



Yes it is a crop, my flats had issues, that I am atributing to the full moon, so the full field wasn't calibrated properly, which also means the rest of the image was not ideally calibrated either..but such is life sometimes, I really should re collect he colour data under a new moon...but I may have lost interest in this area by then :)

Mike

[Stevec35]

Pretty good image considering the conditions Mike

Cheers

Steve

[strongmanmike]

Thanks Steve

Overall the colour version is probably about a 6/10 image by my reconing and I was happy with the details...but considering the conditions and problematic data I had to work with, that'll do...this time :)

Mike

[avandonk]

Mike I think I have said this before. My boss at CSIRO used to say to me 'even in doubt just collect data you can always assess it later at your leisure'.

Even when things are not perfect you actually learn what the limitations of yourself and your equipment is.

I have bits of ply I can stick up to stop the Moon from illuminating my NB endowed member and getting down the optical tube to scatter.



Bert

[Peter.M]

Why stop there! http://img.metro.co.uk/i/pix/2011/03/24/article-1300967207614-0B51086100000578-330784_636x336.jpg

Goodbye sun, hello imaging in the daytime.

[SkyViking]

That's a great image Mike, I can't even imagine what it would have looked like if you'd had perfect conditions...
I like the different crops, and the distant nebula has a very interesting texture!

[strongmanmike]

I agree, when I was sitting out there and watching the raw rubbish appearing on my screen and thinking, what am I gunna do with that... I was a little depressed but I just kept going by focusing (pardon the pun) on the whole experience - it's a great hobby (mostly) :thumbsup:



I do have the 200mm long tube extension but particularly on the western side of the meridian I could see the light of the moon reaching right down into the tube past the extension - can't have been good :rolleyes:



Cheers Rolf, we take what we can get sometimes :thumbsup:



Doh! :doh: Eat my Shorts :P

Mike

Goodbye sun, hello imaging in the daytime.

[multiweb]

Top shot Mike. Colors are spot on. Really like the field too. Well done. :thumbsup:

[Ross G]

Another great photo Mike.

Like the colours and beautiful composition.

Ross.

[strongmanmike]

Cheers Marc and Ross, doesn't quite have the wow factor but glad you like it :)...I don't ever want to become an imager who will only post the perfect image results, I just love sharing what I do with others who understand the lunacy involved..and the lengths we will all go to, to construct something, even if it isn't an award winner :).

Mike

[RobF]

Amen!
Perhaps I'm "normal" after all :P
(Nahhh....!)

[cventer]

Nice work Mike. I particularly love the Ha widefield and crop.

[strongmanmike]

Cheers Chris..me too, see what you have to look forward too ;).. just avoid bright moon and cloud when you want the colour data :lol: :thumbsup:

Mike