He2-72 Planetary nebula

tornado33 · #1 11-05-2009, 10:11 PM

After seeing Tom Davis' fantastic 23 hour narrowband image of IC 2948, he pointed out that there was a planetary nebula clearly visible in the image, PK294-00 1 also known as HE2-72, so earlier tonight I imaged it with the 10 inch scope.

7x10 mins ISO 400. I used the Baader UHCS and IDAS UV/IR filter rather than the IDAS LPS filter as the UHCS is a more severe filter, suited to imaging under such bright moonlit skies. Hutech Modded 350D, 10 inch f5.6 Newtonian, off axis hand guided with Q guider cam as usual

The first few subs were darker as there was a gap from astronomical twilight till moonrise. The last few subs were brighter but still usable. With the more severe nebula filters like the UHCS, DSO imaging (emission line nebulae) is definately possible with full or near full moon about.

Full size image here
Theres some red nebulosity from nearby IC 2948 in the background.
Scott

strongmanmike (Michael) · #2 11-05-2009, 10:35 PM

That's very cool Scott. Tom was the UK Schmidt you the AAT

kudose to you too as you don't have a fully remote controlled robotic point and click give-me-this....bingo! outfit either

Mike

h0ughy (David) · #3 11-05-2009, 10:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

That's very cool Scott. Tom was the UK Schmidt you the AAT

kudose to you too as you don't have a fully remote controlled robotic point and click give-me-this....bingo! outfit either

Mike

Can you imagine what Mr Alder would pull out of the bag if he was able to pull out all stops and have the resources of some of these guys......

Alchemy (Clive) · #4 12-05-2009, 05:50 AM

smack on target and pinpoint sharp too .

i see you are using an off axis guider, could you just post a close up of the focuser/ guider/ camera setup, ive toyed with this myself but not seen one in action.

superb image and not done with a gazillion dollars of gear..... the deep sky section seems to be going that way , and its out of my league.

Tom Davis (Tom) · #5 12-05-2009, 05:57 AM

Cool!!

Tom

Ric · #6 12-05-2009, 12:25 PM

A great looking planetary Scott, very nicely captured.

Cheers.

tornado33 · #7 12-05-2009, 12:48 PM

Many thanks all

Heres a pic of the off axis guider.
I got it from this mob. They make the base to custom tube diameter, or flat if going on a square truss type scope. Guidestars are fairly comatic. If it were possible to get a custom made coma corrector lens designed to correct off axis stars where the pick off prisim is, that would be great.
Scott

Alchemy (Clive) · #8 12-05-2009, 05:12 PM

thanks for posting the links scott. certainly wouldnt get any flexure with that setup.

tornado33 · #9 12-05-2009, 09:37 PM

No worries. Thats why I went for the OAG. I was getting flexure with a guidescope as the scope only has a rather thin sheetmetal tube. Ive done up to 20 minute subs without any trailing. Polar alingment does need to be pretty spot on, as Im guiding on stars well away from the optical axis so any field rotation would show up more. The good thing about this OAG is the pick off prism sees totally unfiltered starlight, handy when using narrowband filters for imaging.
Scott

Miaplacidus (Brian) · #10 13-05-2009, 06:39 PM

Okay, that's it. I think NASA can call it a day now. Ol' Barrack can now start diverting all those funds into some other area of need. Pointless trying to compete with all this amateurs. Might as well start by selling off Cape Canaveral... Houston, you've got a problem. Turn the lights off when you leave, okay?

Brilliant capture. Congratulations.