Sharpless 308 - Cosmic Bubble in Canis Major

[marco (Marco Lorenzi)]

Dear all, it is several months I do not post an image here. Last January during the dramatic bushfire that damaged Siding Spring observatory I reported several damages to my remote observatory too. Luckily (I would say miraculously) the dome was spared but I was forced to a long stop to replace some parts and put back the telescope online. I still have some issues to solve but hopefully I am slowly going back to a full functionality.

I was able a couple months ago to collect some light of a favorite object of mine, a rarely imaged giant bubble in Canis Major, SH2-308. I posted an image here long ago, however an upgrade of my setup with the integration of an OAG in the imaging train permits me now to get longer exposures on my subframes removing several flexture issues I was suffering of. This produces *much* better s/n images than I had in the past, in particular for narrow band filters.

Below is the result of this new version

Sharpless 308

It is an image using the former RGB data I had but with new Ha and OIII data. This, added to a more careful image processing in particular with PicsInsight, results in a far more pleasant result that my former attempt.

I hope you will like this new version, for comparison the old one is here. I suggest the view at full resolution.

Clear skies
Marco

[RickS (Rick)]

Very nice, Marco. Good to see you're up and running again!

[Larryp (Laurie)]

Nice work, Marco-colours are great and it has a 3-D look to it.

[LewisM]

Just beautiful! Lovely job!

[Regulus (Trevor)]

Nicely done Marco, that is superb.

Trevor

[SkyViking (Rolf)]

Wow that looks amazing and it seems to also be a massive improvement on an already excellent image.
Thanks for the view and good to see you back in the game Marco

[rustigsmed (Russell)]

Spectacular! I love seeing these rarer objects. thanks for sharing.

Rusty

[sjastro]

A great image.

This is one object that I have have always wanted to image but was frustrated by the small FOV of my ST-X10ME.

Now that I have acquired an STXL-11002 it is definitely on the list.

Clear skies

Steven

[astronobob (Bob)]

Havent seen anything like this one Marco, what a stunning object and a big improvement with added data, ! Glad your remote obs is still breathing

[Joshua Bunn (Joshua)]

That's Awesome... so 3D. lovely colour aswell.

Josh

[gregbradley]

What a unique image. It is really quite vivid in your latest version.

OAGs are the way to go for sure.

Great work and good to hear you're setup is nearly back to operatiing.

Greg.

[Peter Ward]

Bravo Marco!

Superb, imagery. Thank you for posting this splendid image.

[John Hothersall]

Star colours are superb and reds within the bubble look a lot richer.

John.

[Leonardo70 (Leonardo Orazi)]

Wonderful Marco ... 3D vision ... and welcome back !!



Ciao,
Leo

[Bart]

Wow!

That is killer!

Love that blue! Far Out, that is really narly!!

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Amazing looking object Marco, I remember the first version well and this is even better.. a good one to try with the AG12 I guess..? But I doubt I could match this superb effort...I expect to see it in the final 5 of the deep sky section of APOTY

Mike

[Paul Haese]

Cracker of an image Marco. Colour and saturation is just great as far as I am concerned. The detail is superb too. One image I would be most happy with myself.

[E_ri_k (Erik)]

Beautiful image Marco! pops out at you and looks 3D! Fantastic colour and detail.

Erik

[dvj (John)]

Hi Marco,

I've never seen this object before. What a great scope that 140 is along with your processing skills.

We suffered no damage to the "shed" observatory near yours, but the fire came very close.

[multiweb (Marc)]

Great shot Marco and good to hear your gear is alright. Welcome back.