Dark Doodad in Musca

[avandonk]

Last night in Melbourne was hot and the minimum temperature was 23C at about 0300HR. The lowest temperature the fridge could get to was -3C at the Peltier cold plate so I set the temperature at -1.5C. This actually puts the camera in an environment of 1.7C and obviously the sensor is a few degrees warmer than this.

Collected some data of the Dark Doodad. Canon 5DH, Canon 300mm F2.8 at f/2.8. Hutech LPR filter. I used the 1250mm MAK to guide the EQ6 at the same sort of accuracy as I use for the SN10.

Details of exposures. 10x( 30s,1min,2min,4min ) at 800ISO. From the different exposure sets produced a tone mapped image with EasyHDR.

Large Image here
http://members.optusnet.com.au/~avandonk1/DDoodad.jpg

Bert

[Omaroo (Chris Malikoff)]

Given the heat Bert, I think your machinery has served well. I've always liked the Dark Doodad (probably something to do with the very cool name) and we don't see it imaged enough.

[Ric]

Great image Bert, you've brought it out very nicely indeed.

I agree with Chris, it's a great name for that object.

[renormalised (Carl)]

Great name for something so....ordinary

Great piccie too...especially the original

Wouldn't it be funny, if amongst all those stars there in the pic, there were some aliens looking at precisely the same object and their name for it translated into English as "Dark Doodad"

[peeb61 (Paul)]

Nice one Bert..love the field of view, you can get lost in it.

Paul

[gregbradley]

Great image Bert.

Greg.

[Hagar (Doug)]

Great dodad Bert. I also love the two little globulars in the image. The stars are fine right down to the stars in the globs.

Well done considering the heat.

[h0ughy (David)]

What a lovely doodad Bert!

[Geoff45 (Geoff)]

Nice subtle image. Makes a change from all the dazzling nebulas. (or nebulae for the pedants who don't think language evolves)
Geoff

[BerrieK]

Now that is a beautiful image. I too love the wide field, position of the Doodad in the field and inclusion of the globulars. It certainly is a remarkable Dark Doodad.


I am continuously floored by the amazing photos posted on this site.

[theodog (Jeff)]

Nice doodad. There seem to be plenty of darks in Musca, and that's a lovely portrait Bert.

Originally Posted by ghsmith45

Nice subtle image. Makes a change from all the dazzling nebulas. (or nebulae for the pedants who don't think language evolves)
Geoff

Language does -spelling doesn't.

[tornado33]

I love the star colours too, so many different shades when looking at the hi res version.
Scott

[avandonk]

Thanks for the comments folks. Scott the reason all the stars have colours is because of the HDR process.Hagar guiding a FL of 300mm with a 1250mm scope also helps to keep the stars pinpoint much to my surprise. This also shows how good the lens is. Far better than I thought.

I will get more data when this region is higher and above most of the light pollution. You can get an idea of what is really there from the image below. This was processed to get colour and what detail was there for the very dim dark dust cloud.

This is what is good about astrophotography, no image no matter how good is the final one. You can always do better.

By the way the dark dust and gas clouds are what you and I and all you see around you were eons ago. Before that they were stars.

Carl Sagan told me a long time ago that we are all children of the stars.

Bert

[lesbehrens (Les)]

its amazing what we can see in our back yards.

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Musca star fields 5 miles long oh de doodad day...

Nice FOV Bert

Mike

[glenc (Glen)]

Thanks Bert, your image is great. I saw the doodad (HMSTG436) with 20x80s recently. It is about 2.5 degrees long.