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Old 12-02-2021, 06:17 PM
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mental4astro (Alexander)
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mental4astro is offline
 
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: sydney, australia
Posts: 4,979
Martin,

The Homunculus Neb is a surprising little object that is discernible as being non-stellar is appearance using little apertures. With just 100X magnification it can be seen as a little blob with an orangish hue to it.

More aperture and more magnification shows more and more structure/detail. It can take as much magnification as you would use with the planets - & like the planets, really good seeing conditions are a must to show detail. The two lobes at anything over 200X will show a mottled structure to it, almost "net like" texture to the lobes. The two lobes of the Homunculus can be seen as well, with one being distinctly pointing in our direction (and brighter) with the dimmer second lobe pointing away. I've been able to see the tutu like skirt of material that Ivan mentioned in my 9" Mak. However, the tutu is a difficult structure to show. It took me several nights of intense scrutiny of Eta Carina last April to finally have a night good enough to see the tutu.

Oh, and the Homunculus, like the planets, does not need a dark site to thrash it. It makes for an excellent urban skies target.

Below is a quick sketch I did of Eta Carina & the Keyhole neb back in April using a 9" Santel Mak & 14mm Vixen SSW eyepiece, 221X. As a sketch target it presents some challenges that no other DSO has, so I've been working on different techniques to best portray this tiny portion of the Eta Carina Nebula. This is a long term project I've set myself as I work my way to a sketch that says to me "Yep, that'll do nicely". I'm not there yet. This is the third study of Eta I've done in this development process. Some targets need special attention in order to produce the result that one wants.

Alex.
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Last edited by mental4astro; 12-02-2021 at 06:48 PM.
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