[Placidus (Mike and Trish)]

Originally Posted by Slawomir

Skilfully processed two beautiful gems that I was not aware of at all. Awesome work Mike and Trish

Thanks, Suavi. I'd had a crack at the eight burst something like eight years ago, and just got the faintest hint of that equatorial septum or wall or division. It's a bit more obvious this time. Only became aware of the Musca spiral planetary over the last two years or so via images by Rolf Olsen, Geoff Smith, and Paul Haese.

Originally Posted by Atmos

Nicely done! I have on a couple of occasions tossed up the idea of attempting the Eight Burst nebula with my baby refractor (compared to your giant scope!) but it is just so small at 670mm

Hubble really has set an unattainable benchmark for us amateurs hehe

Thanks, Colin. The Eight Burst is very bright, a bit like the Bug in Scorpius, so it's quick to photograph. Might be worth a shot.

Originally Posted by rustigsmed

very nice M& T,
good to see you use your FL for some of these PN's they are fantastic and so varied.

cheers

Cheers, Russell. The variety is certainly the spice. Fascinating that the same basic underlying mechanism (atmospheric expulsion by hot collapsing post-nuclear core) should, when combined with binary companions, planetary discs, magnetic fields, etc, produce such an extraordinary menagerie.

Originally Posted by gregbradley

Nice shots Mike.

I find my CDK17 is quite sensitive to seeing as well. The Honders though is not particularly nor is it that sensitive to light pollution. That's AP knowhow for you.

Greg.

Hi, Greg. The Honders is an astonishing piece of kit, but in addition, for any given technology above six inches, I believe that the larger the aperture, the more six inch parcels of turbulent air we look through, and the more overlapping rubber-stamp copies of the target we blur together. A six inch refractor, a Barlow, and tiny pixels might be the best instrument for the Eight Burst. Dunno.

Originally Posted by codemonkey

Good stuff guys, a couple of interesting targets. I was tossing up having a crack at these myself, but then figured with my imaging scale I was probably better off sticking with something a bit bigger... and then you post these... saves me the trouble!

Cheers, Lee! Glad to be of service.

Best,
Mike