I am pleased to present my latest image out of Clayton Observatories. This object nicknamed Gabriela Mistral Nebula and properly known as NGC3324 is a nebula which has given birth to several very large stars in the last million or so years. Those stars are now illuminating the entire nebula.
Once again only a short amount of data on this project at 8 hours.
Nice, smooth data with little noise for 8 hours looking at this image on my iPad. Is the blue/ green of the "face mask" OIII data? Fascinating sharp transition between there and the surrounding nebulosity.
Ian, the diffraction spikes are from the RC12. You might be thinking that I am only using a refractor, but I have two systems. If this is not your thinking can you elucidate your question a little please?
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Originally Posted by Ryderscope
Nice, smooth data with little noise for 8 hours looking at this image on my iPad. Is the blue/ green of the "face mask" OIII data? Fascinating sharp transition between there and the surrounding nebulosity.
Rodney the OIII data and the Ha data are probably contributing to the blue green colour. I have mapped SII to red, Ha to green and OIII to blue. It's a fascinating object altogether in my opinion, but the boundary/gas wall is present in all channels. I think the wall is being illuminated by stars from behind the edge which are hidden from view. Though I could be completely wrong and would be pleased to here from anyone that actually does know.
A very nice NGC 3324 indeed Paul! I've always felt that this object looks best in the Hubble palette and it doesn't need a lot of data for spectacular results.
A very nice NGC 3324 indeed Paul! I've always felt that this object looks best in the Hubble palette and it doesn't need a lot of data for spectacular results.
Cheers
Steve
Thanks Steve. It is a very bright object compared to some and I found noise was significantly reduced overall pretty quickly. The palette does seem to work quite well with this object. The SII is quite thin though and I only had two subs. I should have collected more but, once I put it all together the noise level did not seem too bad.
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Originally Posted by RickS
Very nice, Paul. The colours are atttractive and the detail is great. The GSO is performing well.
Cheers,
Rick.
Thanks Rick. There is one more tweak that I need to do yet to get this system really working well. I now have the correct adapter between the flattener to the filter wheel. Or so I am told. I need to fit this in place so I don't have to crop my images. I plan on installing that sometime in the next few days. With any luck the distance will be right this time. TS Optical are reasonably sure they have given me the right distances now. Time will tell.
Paul this is fantastic and a real inspiration for me to buy some Sii, HA and Oiii filters - really like the hubble pallete on this!
i tried my first eta carina with my DSLR on the weekend (will post up later). i feel with filtered work and mono camera i could have got a far superior result (and of course the Sii, Ha, Oiii colour combination is completely different to RGB!).
Can you share what filters you used for this / what filters you use in general for your DSO imaging? (apologies if you have posted this somewhere already, i did a search and couldnt find it!)
Not much noise control needed to produce a smooth image. Nor was much integration needed on such a bright object.
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Originally Posted by Placidus
Very fine. A pleasure to explore.
Your image got me thinking Mike and the subject was small enough so I could crop out some of the crap stars in the corners.
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Originally Posted by kkara4
Paul this is fantastic and a real inspiration for me to buy some Sii, HA and Oiii filters - really like the hubble pallete on this!
i tried my first eta carina with my DSLR on the weekend (will post up later). i feel with filtered work and mono camera i could have got a far superior result (and of course the Sii, Ha, Oiii colour combination is completely different to RGB!).
Can you share what filters you used for this / what filters you use in general for your DSO imaging? (apologies if you have posted this somewhere already, i did a search and couldnt find it!)
Krishan, this image is composed of SII Ha and OIII filters from Astrodon. My filters are 5nm for both SII and Ha and then 3nm for OIII. For galaxy work I use RGB and Ha. I usually decide what filters to use based on the objects predominant gas composition and what I have seen works for others. The information about my images is listed below the image on my website.
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Originally Posted by gregbradley
You've got your RC singing. Looking good.
Greg.
Nearly there Greg. I installed the correct (hmm so I am told by TS Optical) adapter today, so hopefully I will get a perfectly flat field from here on in. The collimation still needs a little looking at I think, but that will be just a tweak or two. I just hope the field is now flattened correctly. You might hear me scream all the way over there if it is not.
Nice one Paul. Would be interested to see (with pics) what flattener + adapters you arrived at, along with your results.
I am using the TS Optical 3" flattener. Their original specifications called for a back focus distance of 106mm I tried that and other suggestions they had up to 109mm. The longer distances made for worsening star shapes in the corners of the 11002 sensor. Eventually I contacted them and sent images showing the problem. They now say that the distance should be 103mm. I have had yet another adapter made up and now awaiting for the sky to clear to get an idea if their calculated measurements have proven correct this time. Time will tell.
