I've been working on this one for a while & thought it about time to post it here.
Taken over 6 nights for a total time of 16 hrs it is definitely my longest exposured object, just a shame a lot of the data is kind of average with high cloud or smoke causing some nasty vignetting...Iris to the rescue!
43x3min ISO800, 167x5min ISO400, 99 darks, no flats(I wish), Shot through the GSO 10" & stock 40D DSLR.
My processing skills are still quite..err, lazy so a repro is on the cards no doubt.
At a distance of approx 1000 light-years, HH32 is a young star still in the process of clearing out it's accretion disc, some of this material is expelled from it's polar regions in the form of gas jets.
Travelling at 100's of km/s this gas interacts with the local interstellar medium creating these spectacular & rapidly evolving jets.(spectacular in hubble shots, for me it's just a little pink blob)
Lasting for only a few thousand years you have to get them while they're hot so you'd better be quick to catch this little gem, first 10 photographers receive a free set of steak knives.
Also of note in this image:
Reflection nebula GN 19.18.0 - 3:30 o'clock position near edge of frame.
White dwarf star GD 218 - between HH32 & GN 19.18.0, brilliant blue, can't miss it.
Herbig-Haro 250 - at 10:30 o,clock position, centered between two of the brightest stars in the image.
I searched the net for images of HH32 but could only find two, the digital sky survey & hubble's fantastic effort...no amateur shots at all.
Might I be so bold as to suggest another imaging challenge on this rarely photographed object?
Fred(Bassnut) is the man I had in mind but all would be welcome of course.
Fred you love capturing stars at the end of their life cycle, how about trying the other end?
Attached is a full-size crop of HH32, approx 6 arcmins square this is comparable to many PN & should make an interesting target for those who like to go narrow-field.
HH32 - RA 19 20 31, Dec +11 01 58.
Another large Herbig-Haro object a bit further south is...
HH46/47 - RA 8 25 42, Dec -51 00 40.
Getting a bit late in the year for the last one but larger than HH32 so could look quite good.
Hope you enjoy the images & I hope someone will take up the challenge & create a far superior image using far superior equipment, as I mentioned earlier this is a very rarely imaged object so a quality image would be magazine or APOD material(blatant attempt at mustering interest)...Oh & don't forget the free steak knives.
Cheers,
Justin.
