M76 - 9"f/9

[Dietmar]

hi my friends,

it's been a while since my last post.
weather was nasty for more than 2 months.
but - everything ends and so does bad weather...

I started M76 in an almost perfect night! 1.11.07 - we had terrific seeing and transpareny. (8)-9/10 !
but that night moon came up high in the sky so I had to stop after 2 hours - it was just too bright.
then of course - I had to wait a little ... and on friday last week I was able to complete the session with 5.5 more hours of exp time.
single frames 10 minutes and 15 minutes.

scope: 9" f/9 TMB Apo
CCD: SXVF M25C one shot color
image acquisition, autoguiding preprocesing astroart4.
also CCD sharp and registax for preprocessing.
postprocessing (incuding pseudoluminance) in PS CS2 and Pix Insight LE.

here we are with a small preview:
http://www.stargazer-observatory.com.../M76-small.jpg

FULL size:
http://www.stargazer-observatory.com/M76-full.html

make sure to check out his enlarged crop HERE:
http://www.stargazer-observatory.com/M76-ecrop.html

this little nebula holds only some 61 ar seconds in its longitudinal axis and therefore is a "hard nut" in terms of resolution and detail.

I am really very glad with that result, as the central appears to be a little elongated and one could get the idea, it has two parts...(only visible in the enlarged crop)well, I admit - this is personal bias here...
also the small stargroup was a specific target and I am happy, the 9" apo split this group.

looking forward for your comments and tips, guys!

[iceman (Mike)]

Hi Dietz, what a way to come back with a brilliant image like that. The background is so incredibly smooth with so many faint galaxies littered about.

Brilliant.

[theodog (Jeff)]

Very nice images. Plenty of detail and colour in a difficult object. Well done.
Love those faint galaxies.

[jase (Jason)]

Nice work Dietz. Good resolution. Interesting framing on the full size version. Well done.

[Alchemy (Clive)]

very nice dietmar, good to see the weather has let you out, this is how planetarys should look with lots of detail, i had a quick check on a planetarium program at its location .... right at the zenith, its much lower down here in australia.

As for tips..... be nice to your mother (aussie humour)

[dcalleja]

Dietmar
A really amazing image - very well done!

[Dietmar]

...thanks Mike, Jeff, Jase, Alchemy and Dan!

[Dietmar]

FYI:

I just goolged around for some data on the central star.
well, certainly the central star is solitude, a very hot star of some kKelvin (differing data on that between 15k to 60k)...?
the yellowish "binary-component" to the south is a star far out in the background - it is said to be located some 20k LY behind the nebula.
HST has revealed this to be certain...
so this optical binary system has a distance of some 1.4".
did you know this PN (the faintets of all Messier objects) was long time believed to be a galaxy until precise spectroscopic investigations from the early 19th century revealed its true nature?
the PN is said to be seen from an edge on view - the "barr" or "cork" like brighter part is said to be a kind of ring-like structure - consisting of the material the very hot CS blows out. this brigther part holds approx. 1 arc min in longitud. axis. however the fainter outer parts - the wings of the "butterfly" measure approx. double size.
and further out there are remnants from the periode when the CS dwelled in its "super-giant" phase, commencing to evaporate outer star-mass. it has some diameter of approx. 4-5 arc minutes.

[Garyh]

Wonderful image Dietz! well worth the wait for sure!

[Tamtarn]

One word ................ Magnificent

[CoombellKid]

Simply Spectacular!!! look forward to seeing more, Well done.

regards,CS

[Dietmar]

...thanks Gary, David and Rob.

[rumples riot]

Simply superb, what more can I say Dietz. That is totally insane. Lovely lovely image.