Just the NW corner of the Gourd Nebula (RCW 11 or Sh308) in Canis Major.
Normal observers will immediately recognize that the neck of the gourd is actually the profile of a dolphin (although sadly not a bottle-nosed dolphin, which would be just too convenient). The WR star is plausibly the dolphin's beady eye.
Mapping H-alpha to red, OIII to Green+Blue doesn't work for those of us who are colourblind, where red is invisible and blue-green looks grey, so we've rotated the palette slightly so H-alpha appears a warm orange, and OIII appears an inoffensive cerulean blue.
For detail, we took 3 x 1hr H-alpha plus 4 x 1hr OIII, all unbinned, but the nebula is so faint in H-alpha that we added another 2x 1hr 2x2 binned subs in H-alpha.
The H-alpha is pushed strongly, and narrowband colours are arbitrary, so the central WR star looks orange. In "real life" it would be bright blue.
Please don't waste a lovely afternoon checking to see if some of the stars look funny where we messed up using a star-rounding tool (we did), or statistically analyzing to see if the background shows gritty colour noise (it does).
Instead, reward yourself with something special: have a look at the sharpness and detail of the minutely interwoven shock fronts. We believe (modestly, and in awe) that at 3.45 metres focal length and having some good seeing, we've been lucky enough to show much more detail than in Don Goldman's APOD 2009 shot, which shows the entire Gourd.
Our shot is 36 min arc across, 0.55 sec arc per pixel. Hope you like it.
Love the smiley dolphin face, Mike & Trish
Some great detail there. Looking forward to the rest of the mosaic! Cheers, Rick.
Thanks, Rick. The dolphin reminds us of Flipper. The mosaic might have to wait, as it takes a couple nights per panel and is already well past the meridian.
Quote:
Originally Posted by multiweb
Superb details Mike. Really nice. I don't think you need a mosaic. Looks good as is.
Thanks, Marc! We are delighted that a master of mosaics likes it as is.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bassnut
wow, that is very impressive indeed, fantastic detail and appropriate colour. Zoomed in is excellent, no need for a mosiac.
Hi, Fred. We were super-pleased by the unexpected sharpness.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ryderscope
Nicely done Mike. An enjoyable journey looking into the details of the whisps of nebulosity whilst imagining the different shapes that we can see.
Thanks, Rodney. There's more than gourds and shock fronts up there.
We should love to know why it is so strong in OIII and so weak in H-alpha. That makes it different to say Hershel's Ring, or Thor's Helmet.
Very interesting stuff there M&T. The delicate tracery is amazingly beautiful. Not sure about it being a dolphin. It reminds me of some other animal which the aging brain cells can't quite bring to the surface.
Geoff
That's an awesome shot Mike. You show the reflective nature of it very clearly. Greg.
Thanks, Greg. It looks a bit like it is sculpted from ice.
Quote:
Originally Posted by alistairsam
That looks fantastic. lovely detail. For me personally, the benchmark is Marco's image, but of course its a much wider fov. http://www.glitteringlights.com/Imag...ae/i-BrmvbBj/A
do you have the acquisition and equipment details somewhere? Cheers
Alistair
Whoops. 3nM Astrodon filters. Aspen CG16M at -30C. PlaneWave 20" CDK. Mathis Instruments MI760 fork mount. Custom servo-motors. Auto-refocus between subs. All dome, camera, mount, and scope control electronics, firmware, software, and all image processing software (except final embedding of ICC profile) built or written by us.
Marco's image has lovely star colours.
Quote:
Originally Posted by prokyon
Fantastic! So many details and colors are great too. Looks a bit scary, love it.
Thank you !
Quote:
Originally Posted by Leonardo70
Simply wonderful. congrats !! All the best,
Leo
Thanks, Leo, I'm delighted.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ghsmith45
Very interesting stuff there M&T. The delicate tracery is amazingly beautiful. Not sure about it being a dolphin. It reminds me of some other animal which the aging brain cells can't quite bring to the surface. Geoff
Thanks, Geoff. A dolphin with seal affiliations perhaps.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Andy01
Sharpless bubbles must be like London buses, there are none around then three arrive at once! That's an awesome result, you've gotta be happy with that - well done!
Must confess that it was the other two very fine and shiny buses that got us enthused. We plate solved your shot in order to work out where to point. Thank you!
Been a few images of this lately and this is a nice new close up perspective with some great details at this FL...I noticed the dolphin in previous posts but it is very noticeable here
Been a few images of this lately and this is a nice new close up perspective with some great details at this FL...I noticed the dolphin in previous posts but it is very noticeable here
More great stuff Mike and Trish Mike
Cheers, Mike! Glad that you had independently spotted the cetacean at play.
