Garden variety Ant

[Maurice]

Well... Menzel 3 (Mz3) in Norma might look like your garden variety ant, but its not your garden variety planetary nebula.

With some of the highest gas outflow velocities of any planetary in its class (3.5million km/hr), its still a bit of a mystery with formations resembling those of Eta Carinae. One theory is that it is a close binary system with the companion at an 'earth to sun distance' and the gravitational effects on the outflows result in the shapes we see.

The attached image is 9x600s in Ha taken with my new (to me) GSO RC14 at 2850mm FL with a QHY9 camera + EQ8. Seeing was good with the image stack at 1.9" FWHM unprocessed. Guiding with an OAG + ASI 120MM camera. Image dark subtracted but not flat fielded.

I've been waiting to take more data, but our Melbourne weather has been less than encouraging, so the result is somewhat noisy..
It will be a real challenge to get good colour data for this object as the few trial subs I took with G & B filters did not show much at all.

Not sure what the full frame attached here will look like, but compression will no doubt kill it a bit. Two versions attached - One with unprocessed stars (only stretched) & one with processed stars. The planetary was processed separately & overlayed afterwards.

regards
Maurice

PS Forgot to mention - measured size in Ha from the image is about 90"x12"

[floyd_2 (Dean)]

Love it. Thanks for sharing Maurice.

[Atmos (Colin)]

That's really nice! A pretty small planetary judging by its size and your FL. Would love to see a full NB version

[Maurice]

Originally Posted by floyd_2

Love it. Thanks for sharing Maurice.

Thanks Dean..

[Maurice]

Originally Posted by Atmos

That's really nice! A pretty small planetary judging by its size and your FL. Would love to see a full NB version

Thanks Colin...

NB will only happen when I can afford the filters...

Measured size is about 90"x12"....

cheers

[TR (Terry)]

Maurice. I like it.

Terry

[Andy01 (Andy)]

Great image Maurice, nice to see you back at it again

[Placidus (Mike and Trish)]

Scrumptious!

[Maurice]

Originally Posted by TR

Maurice. I like it.

Terry

Thanks Terry.

Originally Posted by Andy01

Great image Maurice, nice to see you back at it again

Thank you Andy. Nice to be back... now if the weather would cooperate..

Originally Posted by Placidus

Scrumptious!

Thanks Mike & Trish

[Leonardo70 (Leonardo Orazi)]

Great image ... congrats !!

All the best,
Leo

[Shiraz (Ray)]

very impressive image - nice work.

[atalas]

Some nice detail showing....looking forward to seeing colour added.

[Maurice]

Originally Posted by Leonardo70

Great image ... congrats !!

All the best,
Leo

Grazie Leo.
Good to hear from you again!
Spero tutto bene?

regards
Maurice

Originally Posted by Shiraz

very impressive image - nice work.

Thank you Ray... much appreciated.

regards
Maurice

Originally Posted by atalas

Some nice detail showing....looking forward to seeing colour added.

Thanks Louie... Colour will only come next year at the current clear sky rate...

cheers
Maurice

[Regulus (Trevor)]

I love this! Ant-sized image of the ant.
Excellent :-)

Trev

[Maurice]

Cheers Trevor...