NGC 3699, planetary resembles Centaurus A

[tornado33]

Hi
Got a deep image of this strange little seen Planetary Nebula. It resembles Centaurus A with a "dust lane" through it. Ironically this object is also in Centaurus. Ive seen blue in it before but never got the white/yellow/orange colour in the middle of the lobes before. 100 mins total time

10x10 mins ISO400, Hutech LPS filter (A less severe filter then the Baader UHCS) Modded 350D, Baader MPCC coma corrector, 10 inch f5.6 newtonian, off axis hand guided with q guider cam display on laptop pc. Seeing not so good, guidestar looked like it was under water, I was surprised to get the result I did. Very chilly weather.

Theres also a very tiny planetary there, He2-67, marked in 2nd pic and rotated so north is up. Processed as usual in Iris and PS

Full frame pic here. Its a very starry area.
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/uploads...s10inchbig.jpg
Scott

[Ric]

Lovely capture Scott, the colours look fantastic as is the detail.

This one looks like its blown itself into two halves.

Cheers

[Lester]

Very unusual for a planetary, excellent capture Scott.

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

Nicely done Scott. What are you using these days for a mount to be able to get these elusive little suckers on the chip. I've tried hunting some of these buggers and more often than not give up in disgust for the night and move onto something easier.

[Dennis]

Hi Scott

A wonderful image - so many stars, so many colours too. It's a really nice setting for that elusive planetary.

Cheers

Dennis

[tornado33]

Thanks all
I use an Argo navis, that I bought from Photoncollector, along with custom made mountings and gears to fit the Sampson mount, after Paul got his Losmandy mount. To increase accuracy, I go to where the AN says the object is, then go to Tour mode and locate the nearest star of say, mag 4, then re-align off that. That way Im never more than about 10 degrees from an aningment star. The object will always be on the chip, then I just need to take some test images to center it, easy if I can see some stars in the viewvinder to assist me on how far to nudge the scope, harder if no stars visible. 10 or 20 sec ISO 1600 test images will generally show the onject so as to center it.

The Sampson mount I use I bought back in 1986 from Astro Optical Supplies. I never thought at the time I could press it into imaging such obscure stuff digitally.
Scott

[jase (Jason)]

Great work Scott. Enjoy viewing these faint and fuzzies you present. This one is no exception - peculiar object indeed.