M 57 PN in northern hemisphere

[Dietmar]

hi friends,
this is a result of 2 nights.
transparency was regular, but seeing was very differing again.
the borderline of clear skies and clouds/upcoming front was too close to my place.
so seeing was not at its best, varying from FWHM (focus) 1.8 (rarely) to 4.0 arc seconds !
mostly I had around 2.5 only...
(watching the guide-star was somewhat funny: changing its shapre from pin point to snowball...too bad)
I intended to operate the scope at f/18 with the barlow,...no chance, yet...
I took different exposures for luminance in terms of exp-time:
2 min, 4 min and 8 minutes.
also, since I collected almost 2 hours of 2x2 binned RED, I used this fr the outer shell as an additional layer to lum, to enhance what was not there...(-;
all data and all imegs including the enlarged crop is here please:
http://www.stargazer-observatory.com/m57.html
thanks for looking guys,
Dietmar

[h0ughy (David)]

looks exceptional next to that galaxy. Shows features within the shells as well - nice work Mate!! the outer shell is a treat

[astroron (Ron)]

Great photo Deitz, I have never seen such a detailed image of the galaxy, IC 1296
Good work
Ron

[AlexN]

incredible fine detail on both targets within frame!

Great job.
Alex.

[Lester]

Wow, Dietz, that is amazing and that outer nebulosity also.

Well done. Hope you can get some good seeing soon. Hard to imagine how the image could be any better.

[Liz]

Beautiful, Dietz, am not sure if I have noticed that very outer shell before, then a few galaxies in the starfield as well.

[Zuts]

Another top image, just shows what rewards patience will bring.

Paul

[Tamtarn]

Very nice result Dietz. Having the two objects in frame makes a very pleasing image.

[jase (Jason)]

Great work Dietz. This is a tough target at the best of times. I'm guessing some heavy use of deconvolution in a masked manner to extract the details you've obtained. Well done.

[iceman (Mike)]

That is absolutely beautiful. Congrats Dietz, a very very fine result.

[Ric]

Wonderful image Dietz, all those faint galaxies are a lovely bonus.

I also have never seen that fainter outer shell in M57 before.

A great image, thanks for posting.

Cheers

[Dietmar]

...thanx Houghy, Ron, Alex, Lester, Liz, Paul, Barb&Davy, Jase, Mike and Ric.

Jase, you are right. I did as I mostly do. create a couple luminance layers with different software like registax (the waveletes did the very best job on the nebula), CCD stack (decon on the blurry stars) CCD sharp for both - nebula and stars, and finally some smart sharp on stars and nebula in ps cs2. some high pass filtering with a huge pixel radius to enhance local contrast.
it is amazing, how different the results on sharpening can be when using different methods.
registax and ccd stack are most powerful.
thanks again everyone!

[Alchemy (Clive)]

had not seen a shot with the outer halo before.... fascinating

[skeltz (Rob)]

Beautifully image dietz and the helix in the middle almost looks surreal.
EXCELLENT

[Antu]

Excellent image, Dietmar !! Very good sharpness and absolutely pleasant colors. One the best images of M57 I've seen. Congratulations !

[renormalised (Carl)]

Great piccie, Dietz

Not only great structure in both M57 and NGC1296, but there's lots of smaller, fainter fuzzies in the background as well.

[Dietmar]

...thanks again for the very nice words on this result, guys!
may the skies be clear for all of us.