Eta with a difference

[Paul Haese]

I am currently commissioning the RC12 after the change over of rotator focuser and new FitPC4. I am still not entirely happy with the guiding and the star shapes. Things are close enough though to produce an image of the perennial favourite.

The image is composed of SII, Ha, OIII and LRGB. I am sure there will be a few that don't like this look, but I tried to maintain the integrity of the traditional palette with detail of the Hubble palette.

I took some short subs to include the homunculus too. For reference I did 20 second images, but as you can see it would be better to do 5 second shots due to the brightness of the Eta Carina.

I hope you enjoy the image.

Click here for larger resolution image.

[alpal]

Nice picture Paul,
as a test candle -
everything you'd want is there including good resolution of the "finger".

cheers
Allan

[JA]

The little guy looks very well defined and credible.
Great job Paul

Best
JA

[glend (Glen)]

I like the colours Paul.

[gregbradley]

A striking image Paul. Love the Homunculus.

Greg.

[Atmos (Colin)]

That is the most dynamic Eta I’ve seen to date! The only image I’ve seen of the Homunculus embedded in the wider field!

[Joshua Bunn (Joshua)]

really liking the colours and wisps of dust in that one Paul.

[Andy01 (Andy)]

Love it Paul, very poppy Color mapping & nice fresh look for the Kraft cheese of southern nebulas.
Lovely stuff!

[DJT (David)]

The colours really make this

Stars aren’t so bad? Looks like you are almost there.

[Placidus (Mike and Trish)]

Paul, that is exquisite. Beyond words.

[SimmoW (SIMON)]

Yes that's a fine first test of the scope Paul! Such varied colours too, well done.

I see the star shapes up top left and right, but very close to fixing I bet. Amazing shapes everywhere else

[multiweb (Marc)]

Terrific shot. Love the colours.

[RickS (Rick)]

Colours look good to me too, Paul. A fine test shot

[Peter Ward]

Eta is always good.

Maybe a little soft...interesting colours.

[Kunama]

Beautiful image Paul, great view of the little man.

[Camelopardalis (Dunk)]

Nice rich colours, good details, what’s not to love

[John K]

Nice going Paul - really like that colour combo!

Clear skies.

John K.

[atalas]

[Paul Haese]

Thanks everyone for the comments and compliments. Collimation will need a tweak in the coming weeks, so I will need to make a trip to Clayton just for final collimation. That may have made the image look a little soft.

Originally Posted by Atmos

That is the most dynamic Eta I’ve seen to date! The only image I’ve seen of the Homunculus embedded in the wider field!

There are a few about with this now. Both Mike Sidonio and myself did something like this a couple of years ago which show both the Homunculus and the overall nebula, though I think I might have gone that one step further now with the dynamic range. I think there is more available there though with doing several lots of really short subs to eek out core detail. Rob Gendler has done a really nice shot with Hubble data which shows both nebula and Homunculus exquisitely. So I think there is still a lot to try for yet.

It's nice to have this system operating now too. It gives me more objects to go for each clear night. Though does end up being a glut of data to process.