Tarantula in 3nm HA and NII

[avandonk]

With a couple of clear nights in a row managed to collect data in HA and NII of the lower bit of the LMC. This was done with a near full Moon!

Exposures for both HA and NII were 10x8 minutes and 10x16 minutes.

I used these two exposure levels to make a HDR or tone mapped image of each from stretched stacks. This stops the bright bits blowing out but still shows the really dim stuff down to the noise.

This is an average of both HA and NII data and is what you would get with a 5nm or wider HA filter 4MB

http://d1355990.i49.quadrahosting.com.au/2012_10/HA+NII_AV_.jpg

This is an inverted version 4MB

http://d1355990.i49.quadrahosting.com.au/2012_10/HA+NII_AV_INVERT.jpg


Here the the HA data is the red channel and NII the green 7MB

http://d1355990.i49.quadrahosting.com.au/2012_10/LMC_HAR_NIIG_.jpg


Here the NII data is the red channel and HA green

http://d1355990.i49.quadrahosting.com.au/2012_10/LMC_NIIR_HAG_.jpg


It is obvious that HA and NII have different distributions. It would be interesting to add OIII to the absent blue channel. NII could become the new SII for the Hubble palette where the SII signal is very faint and not extensive.

This system is very fast and once I master it even better deeper images will be captured.

System details.

Astrograph is an Officina Stellare RH200 which has a focal length of 600mm and is F3, yes F3! Clear aperture is 200mm.
FLI Atlas Focuser.
FLI ten position filter wheel CFW-3-10 with 50mm square filters.
Astrodon E series LRGB and HA, NII, SII and OIII 3nm NB filters. Also a continuum filter 5nm.
Camera is a FLI PL16803 which has a sensor size 36.8 X 36.8 mm.
The FoV of this system is 3.5 X 3.5 degrees.
Mount is a Software Bisque PMX.
Guidescope is a 100ED with a Lodestar.



Bert

[ourkind]

Wow! They're great, so much detail!

[Ross G]

Great photo Bert.

Amazing detail.

Ross.

[Larryp]

Great work, Bert!

[multiweb]

Outstanding details Bert. :thumbsup: You must be delighted to see these results after all your tribulations. All is falling into place in the end. +1 for persistence. :)

[dvj]

+1 all of the previous comments.

[David Fitz-Henr]

I'll see your +1s and raise you another +1 - Great work Bert!

[avandonk]

Thanks for the encouragement all. I knew it would not be easy but never expected it to be as difficult as it really is.

There is a huge learning curve when everything is totally new.

On the plus side this system peforms even better than I expected. With a lot more practice it will do even better when I get up to speed. It is a bit like going from a go-cart to an F1 car. Without the practice in the go-cart I would most probably be still sitting at the start line stalled or crashed.

I dug up some OIII data to add to this NII and HA.

This is NII to red channel,Ha to green and OIII to blue. 5MB

http://d1355990.i49.quadrahosting.com.au/2012_10/LMC_NIIr_HAg_OIIIb_.jpg


I hope to do more like this to find interesting regions in the Vela SN remnant and many others. The relatively wide field means I can cover a lot of territory. This will give information to the people with longer focal lengths and fast systems an idea where to put in a major effort to capture the really dim 'interesting' stuff that does not normally get imaged.

The real advantage of 3nm narrow band imaging is that it can be done even with a full Moon. So all those inevitable clear nights with a bright Moon will be useful.

We used to have a saying at my last workplace 'if you are not making mistakes you are not trying hard enough!'

Bert

[omegacrux]

Wow nice detail

David

[multiweb]

True - there is a wealth of often overlooked nebulae for long FL imaging within and in the vicinity of the LMC. It's like an all you can eat buffet. Swirly twirly Ha regions everywhere.

[allan gould]

Great image Bert - exceptional.