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Old 04-10-2015, 11:46 AM
Placidus (Mike and Trish)
Narrowing the band

Placidus is offline
 
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Euchareena, NSW
Posts: 3,719
NGC 246 Cetus Skull Nebula

NGC 246 in Cetus is a reasonably large planetary nebula, about 4 min arc across. Magnitude about 8.5. Slightly brighter in OIII (blue) than in H-alpha (yellow). SII was insignificant, and we have not included any.

We've managed to resolve the mag 12 white dwarf separately from its somewhat brighter binary companion.

For the answer in the back of the book, see the stunning, jaw dropping, Gemini South shot.

According to the Gemini shot docco, the edge at the top of the frame is leading, creating a stronger shock as it hits interstellar medium, and that is why it is noticeably brighter than the bottom edge.

H-alpha 8hrs, OIII 8hrs, both in 1 hour unbinned subs. Field 11 min arc, 0.55 sec arc/pixel. Seeing was just under 2 sec arc.

Cheers,
Mike and Trish

Edit: Trish did a reprocess with H-alpha = red, OIII = turquoise, and slightly less noise reduction. I think it's better.
Mike
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Click for full-size image (E NGC 246 Ha 8hrs OIII 8hrs thumbnail.jpg)
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Click for full-size image (Trish's Version.jpg)
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Last edited by Placidus; 06-10-2015 at 05:45 PM.
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