I came upon this object by sheer accident a couple of months ago while researching objects to image. It seems that only a few Australians have imaged this in the past, Steve Crouch being the most notable image. Internationally, there are quite a few examples and Tom Davis's image inpired me the most. The object looks like a giant galactic hairy comet coursing its way through the Milky. Located in Centaurus it is high in the sky at present and easy to find with good pointing software. It is too faint to see with an eyepiece.
To the image; this is 4.3 hours of data, but I am going to collect the same value again. I am not happy with the star colour despite having 40 minutes of data in each of the RGB channels. Galaxy colours are also lacking too and that I think is indicative of not enough intergration time. At the Malins I spoke with Martin about intergration time briefly and I can see how lots of intergration really boosts colour signal on faint objects. So more time it is. How much more will depend on how well the image progresses.
Despite the amount of stretching I did there is relatively low amounts of noise but the brighter stars have bloated and I need to go back and address this I feel.
For a larger image
Click here. Object information is below the image.
Feel free to let me know what you think or if you have any suggestions as to helping with the star colour, muted as those are. I tried all my usual techniques and non seemed to work well.