Box nebula

[Lester]

Hi all, Got my off axis guider working last night with the 14" SCT at F10 pointed at the Box nebula, (NGC 6309) in Ophiuchus. It is 0.3' x0.3' Magnitude 10.8 . I did a quick search on the web, but couldn't find any deeper images. This one does show a faint hint of 2 extentions out at 2 and 8 O'clock. Would be interested to see what others can record.

This is only 9x6 minute exposures with Astro 40D at ISO 800.

[Ross G]

Great capture Lester.

Ross.

[allan gould]

Nice one Lester. Hav not seen this before.

[Lester]

Thanks Ross and Allan for your comments. I did a search on here, but only found some visual observations and no images as yet. All the best.

[jjjnettie]

:) nice one. It's so wee!

[TrevorW]

Thats dedication, so small a target

[Lester]

Thanks JJ and Trevor.

I must add, although the off axis/flip mirror is a great concept the design leaves me a bit dissapointed. With only one grub screw holding the front and rear, where the camera attachment and 2" fitting to slip into the focuser are. Each of them have to be Very tight, otherwise the camera can fall off. Thankfully now I always have the camera with its strap secured to the rear of the scope. So If it falls, will only swing in mid-air without hitting anything. I am thinking of glueing the front and rear sections to the unit. This will mean I have to rotate the whole set-up to find a guide star.

Why such a well thought out instrument has to have just this small oversight. To have added 3 grub screws to the front and rear would elliminate any camera falling off.

Here is a link to the device I am using.
http://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/language/en/info/p5190_TS-2--Flip-Mirror-System---Off-Axis-Guider---kurzbauend.html

[Lester]

You "Wolly" Lester. I had a closer inspection of this device and found 4 small grub screws, 2 at the front and 2 at the rear with pointed ends to be tightened with allen key and secure everything. So all is good. Camera cannot fall of if the device is secured properly as designed.

All the best.

[LightningNZ]

Crazy looking little nebula - it looks like a Blue Bottle jellyfish.

Interesting device Lester. I can see that'd be pretty handy and versatile. Can you use it to set the focus for your camera too, that's to say can the camera be parfocal with an eyepiece?

Cheers,
Cam

[Lester]

Hi Cam yes you could set the focus that way but I prefer using live view at 10x on the camera.

[RickS]

That's incredibly cool, Lester!

[Lester]

Thanks Rick. All the best.

[SkyViking]

That's looking great, and I haven't seen this one before either. Interesting target - it seems like a faint figure '8' structure with a much brighter centre. Thanks for posting.

[Lester]

Thanks Rolf, appreciate your comments.

[tornado33]

Great pic there
Ive done 1 hour on it with my 10 inch f5.6 and came up with this, got the faint extensions on it. I pushed the processing a fair bit :) Taken in sept 2010 with modded 350D, 10 minute subs
Scott

[Lester]

Very nice view Scott, the longer subs did the trick in your case. I wasn't sure if I was seeing an artifact, so good to know the extentions are really there. Thanks, and all the best.

[JohnOS]

Thankyou for sharing your picture.

[tornado33]

No worries, its fun imaging planetaries, so much variety in size, shape, colour and brightness

[tilbrook@rbe.ne]

Nice going Lester!

Going for the small stuff now, guess you can do that with the SCT 14".

Cheers,

Cheers,

Justin.

[John Hothersall]

I love this, these tiny PN's need a big scope and long fl to get any structure which you show well.

John.

[Lester]

Thanks John, Scott, Justin and John for your comments. Yes like Scott I enjoy trying to tease out the unique detail of the planetary nebula. And find processing the images is usually very simple compared to wide field where there can be a greater variation that need masking etc.

Although the 14" at F10 is slow, so trying for planetaries brighter than mag 13.

All the best.