NGC4361 - pn pk294+43.1

[cybereye]

Hello everyone.

Well Sunday night I decided to image something out of the ordinary and so chose NGC4361, a planetary nebula in Corvus.

This image consists of 5 four minute subs and 22 six minute subs giving a total of 2 hours and 32 minutes of exposure. Why the different sub times? Well lets just say I accidentally typed in the wrong value for 6 minute subs - 240s instead of 360s!!

Anyway, the imaging scope was my 8" newt on a HEQ5 Pro mount. The camera was a QHY8L OSC and guiding was done using PHD with a QHY5 attached to an Orion ST80. Stacking was done in DSS with associated darks, flats, etc. Processing in StarTools and final cosmetics in GIMP.

I hope you find my rendition of NGC4361 interesting. :D

Cheers,
Mario

[astronobob]

Wow Mario, I like it, one Planetary with some size about it, Great rendition, though I havent seen this one before, look like agreat target to tackle one day ! That is one worthy result mate, Well done :thumbsup:

[RickS]

Nice catch, Mario! Looks like you did a good job on a tricky little target.

Cheers,
Rick.

[John Hothersall]

This one caught my eye a few weeks ago as it is quite big and shapely which you've caught well with some colour variation.

John.

[cybereye]

John, Rick ad Bob,

Thanks for the comments regarding my image of NGC4361. I was happy with the detail and the colour (in the most part) that I managed to tease out of this unusual target. The part that I really like is that I can see discreet areas in the pn. There is the outer shell of dark magenta "ribbons" which overlay the blueish clouds which in turn surround the brighter, whitish cloud. In the middle of the cloud is the progenitor star which has a dark area around it. The dark area apparently is real - it can be seen in unprocessed data - and not a processing artefact.

Thanks once again,

Cheers,
Mario

[Lester]

Very nice view Mario showing the internal structure well. All the best.

[cybereye]

Thanks Lester - I try to get the best detail I can by coaxing the most I possibly can out of my setup. This target was a little test for it... and me!

Mario