Star field inside the tail of Scorpio

[strongmanmike]

Hallelujah it's a new image :lol:.....:welcome:

I went a little off the beaten track this time and shot a nice open cluster and quite faint surrounding nebulosity inside the tail of Scorpio.

Here is the Full Frame (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/143429323/original)

Here is a crop of the open cluster NGC 6281 (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/143430329/original)

Not a super dooper wowy object and a difficult one from the burbs but I hope you like it none the less :)

Mike

[jjjnettie]

It's a sweet little cluster that one.
It's great to be out amongst it again isn't it. :)

[h0ughy]

its full of gas:D:thumbsup:

[Paul Haese]

Looks nice Mike, good blend of the Ha with the RGB. I like the whispy black dust areas. Great stuff.

[iceman]

Nice Mike, looks really good!

[John Hothersall]

Such a rich area gas everywhere, great start for the winters imaging onslaught.

John.

[Stevec35]

Nicely done Mike - an amazing amount of nebulosity there. Makes me want to do a mosaic with the recent NGC 6231 shot I took.

Cheers

Steve

[cybereye]

Mike,

A very nice image and I love the cropped image! :thumbsup:

Cheers,
Mario

[multiweb]

Great shot. I love the field colors and variety. Really nice. :thumbsup:

[stardust steve]

Wow great. I looked at this cluster last night and even got a 1.6 seconds of glory image :lol:. Great to see what it really comes up like. More clusters please :D

[allan gould]

Mike
Of all the images I've seen recently, this says to me we are not alone.
Stunning.

[marc4darkskies]

What's this not "wowy" bizzo?! That's a great image Mike! :thumbsup: Lovely composition, lovely colour. Annd it's RGB too! ... niiice!

Yeah OK, I'd probably pump up the neb a bit more, but that's just me. :D

Cheers, Marcus

[strongmanmike]

Cheers men (...and JJJ :D) :thumbsup:

Funny, when I was trying to decide on what to image I was originally going for a field right next to this that would have put the Bug Nebula in one corner ala my Fighting Dragons but the nebulosity in most of that section is very faint and I wasn't sure if the composition would look that good, my time is precious and I get out so rarely these days that I decided not to risk it and moved slightly to this field because the cluster was in it....anyway I was happy with the field correction and little dot stars that I got, when I move back to Canberra thsi scope is going under dark skies 100% for sure :thumbsup:

Mike

[trent_julie]

Mike,
This is a lovely region and you have done it the justice it deserves. The colours are superb.

Trent

[strongmanmike]

Thanks Trent, not one of the showcases of the sky but sometimes star fields and gas are worth doing, sure are quite a few more up there this time of year too :thumbsup:

Mike

[DJT]

Hi Mike

Great framing with the cluster and neb. Nice to see something not named after an item on a menu:)..though not sure about cats paw..

[TrevorW]

I see what you mean by the region being rich

nice one

[telemarker]

Eh?

Can't comment on the image though (blocked at work). :P

Regards
Keith

[Rob_K]

Amazing image Mike, but what's with this "Scorpio" business? Are you having a lend of us? :shrug:

Cheers -

[Martin Pugh]

You've blended the Ha well there Mike - just the right flavour for me.

cheers
Martin

[gregbradley]

A wonderful image Mike. A lovely rich starfield with that terrific Ha background. I agree with Martin you got a fabulous Ha colour there. Not easy to achieve.

Greg.

[madbadgalaxyman]

Very very interesting. Nebulosity thru the entire field.
I can't say I have ever "been there"(or even "done that"), when it comes to this interesting field.

High quality Amateur nebula images like yours are now so much deeper even than the H-alpha surveys of the Milky Way that the "pros" did a few years ago.....I wonder if there could be some scientific value in this type of photography.

The H-alpha emission throughout your field is probably best thought of as "diffuse Hydrogen alpha emission" rather than as being an isolated nebula.
( I seem to recall that the diffuse component of the H-alpha emission of a spiral galaxy is about 50 percent of the galaxy's total Hydrogen alpha emission....but don't quote me on this)

In some circumstances, this sort of very very diffuse and very very extended H-alpha emission is at a particular velocity in our line-of-sight and this velocity can be translated to a distance estimate for the layer of H-alpha emitting gas. (obviously a velocity requires a spectrum with an H-alpha line on it)
Layers of very-extended and very diffuse H-alpha emission have been used by some professionals to trace the spiral arms of our galaxy.

I note that many amateur images of various HII regions were used in "Handbook of Star Forming Regions", a superheavyweight "professionals" guide to nebulae and gas/dust clouds in our Galaxy. Obviously, the amateur images were the best available for the objects in question!
(this book is characterized in my recent post in the "Science" forum entitled "Our Galaxy - Some recent Resources)

[naskies]

A beautifully rich field! :) I saw this region as just a little red blob in my wide field... fascinating to see it in such detail.

[strongmanmike]

I would have named it something had anything jumped out at me...but alas even my warped mind didn't see anything in this ink blot :P



Yep, moving back to the Capital soon :)



Scorpio it is :)



Cheers Martin



Glad you liked it Gregles



Considering we can do this sort of thing even from heavily light poluted skies speaks volumes for teh progress in imaging we have enjoyed over the last decade :thumbsup:



That's great to hear.

Mike

[marco]

Wowy! :D I really like this one Mike, not a common field imaged yet spectacular, there is an amazing network of gasses and dusts in there, excellent choice of an unusual target and great processing :thumbsup:

Marco

[strongmanmike]

Thanks Marco, yes the entire 1.8deg X 1.8deg is full of nebulosity and it keeps going...make a nice mozaic I guess? :thumbsup:

Mike

[SkyViking]

Great image Mike and nice choice of target. It looks really impressive in full screen and the crop is great too. I like the smooth natural look with just the right amount of colour everywhere.

[strongmanmike]

Thanks Rolf :thumbsup: might go for the area just next to this next outing, I can squeeze the Bug nebula in even...although the rest of the field is pretty faint neb :confuse3: :)

Mike

[alpal]

Galaxyman,



I doubt that those deep sky surveys put in the number of subframes & time -
including processing that
many amateurs do for one target. i.e.

Ha RGB= 150 50 50 50min RGB

It's a great wide field photo.

[madbadgalaxyman]

Maybe southern imagers should get together and publish their own H-alpha atlas of the southern Milky Way! The nebulae between Ara and Circinus are little known, being mostly RCW and Gum objects. I don't even think the 19th and 18th century observers ever had a proper look at this section of the Milky Way.......hardly any NGC/IC objects in many parts of it.

cheers,
Robert

Not to forget that there are a number of brightish galaxies seen in low extinction windows in this part of the Milky Way, that were entirely missed in the NGC/IC.
e.g. Circinus Galaxy,
and ESO 137-010 and ESO 137-008
(the last two on this list are part of a very rich, but obscured, cluster of galaxies. Minus extinction, it would look like the Coma Cluster..... but only brighter!!)

[Lester]

Another wonderful view Mike. Thanks. I look forward to seeing more from your set-up. All the best.

[strongmanmike]

Cheers Lester, I look forward to the next session too :prey: :thumbsup:

Mike

[rogerg]

Nice. Jewel's in among the pink mist.

[stevous67]

It's a very attractive view, well done Mike.

Steve

[avandonk]

Robert Mikes system and expertise in extracting exquisite faint nebular data etc. is about as good as it gets. I am hoping to get up to speed soon with slightly faster system at half the focal length. I have the added advantage of 3nm NB filters so a wide field survey of HA vs NII distributions is one possibilty. Since it was Mike who first tempted me to buy what I am trying to master, it is fitting that my little off topic interruption is warranted.

Mike has shown that with care amateurs can show the really faint stuff with a high signal to noise. His Cent A and Helix Neb images are just two examples. It also helps to know what is real and artefact!

Nice image Mike and yes it is in Scorpio.

Bert

[strongmanmike]

Cheers Roger and Steve :thumbsup:

Bert...gee, I love you too man :love: :lol:

You have an incredible beast in your hands there.

Mike