M46 with two!! planetaries

[Rigel003 (Graeme)]

Having posted my last Ha image saying it was impossible to take RGB from my inner suburban backyard, I thought I'd have a go at a bright cluster and it actually came out reasonably well.

Everyone knows about NGC 2438, the foreground planetary that appears within the cluster. I discovered a second, smaller planetary near the left hand side of the frame. Easier to see in the larger image here Hard to find a reference to it on the web. Sky Safari Pro labels it as Minkowski 1 - 18, PK 231+04.1, or PN G231.4+04.3 - 14th mag and 30 arc seconds across.

Takahashi TSA-120 with reducer @ f/5.6
Astro-Physics 900GTO mount
FLI Microline 8300 CCD camera

LRGB: 40,20, 20, 20 minutes

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

Lovely work Graeme.

That sure is a small PN! And a nice purple colour.

Good shooting and processing

It's easier to spot in the attached image after seeing it in the large linked image.

[luigi]

Very nice work I really liked the two planetary nebulas.
Very nice field.

[SkyViking (Rolf)]

Lovely shot, its a very beautiful cluster and the planetaries only add to the spectacle! Thanks for the view.

[Rodstar (Rod)]

Nice PNe spotting, Graeme. I was looking at M46 last night. Wish I had known to look for the smaller one....will try next time and report what I can see!

[Paul Haese]

Nice work Graeme, great colours and things of interest in the field.

[Stevec35 (Steve)]

Nice catch Graeme and a well processed image. I probably shouldn't admit this but I was looking at this planetary many years ago and wondering why NGC 2438 looked so faint.

Cheers

Steve

[Rigel003 (Graeme)]

Thanks for the comments everyone. I revised the labels for the smaller planetary after doing some web searching. Catalogue numbers of planetaries seems to be a complex business which I have no clue about.

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Excellent image Graeme (god I have to think to spell your name, same with Rolf ) what a great image, I really like this, simple but meaningful

It is quite surprising what can be achieved from suburban skies actually, Rob Gendler showed this in his early 2000's work with his 12" RCOS and CCD in his driveway in a light polluted suburb of California. I was pleasantly surprised what can be achieved with RGB on the brighter objects from my site too with the fast wide'sh AG12.. and it is pretty light polluted here It is the faint stuff that can be picked up from dark skies and the lack of gradients is a god send in processing! My deep Cen A from 08 was composed over 3 nights from Wiruna, 7 hrs each night horizon to horizon and I used no gradient removal at all in the final processing here is the (low res) straight RGB with zero gradient attention....I need that again

Again nice job
Mike

[RobF (Rob)]

Wonderful M46 - we really don't pay enough attention to clusters. This really does justice to the object and the 2nd planetary is great to see.

[Lester]

Wonderful view Graeme, that has lifted the bar now for this cluster to try and record both planetaries. All the best.

[renormalised (Carl)]

Well done, Graeme

Like the PN's and the cluster looks great as well.

[Rigel003 (Graeme)]

Thanks for the comments Mike, Rob, Lester and Carl.

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

My deep Cen A from 08 was composed over 3 nights from Wiruna, 7 hrs each night horizon to horizon and I used no gradient removal at all in the final processing here is the (low res) straight RGB with zero gradient attention....I need that again
Mike

Wonderful image Mike. Is there some rationale for using straight RGB rather than LRGB on objects like bright clusters and using unbinned subs?

[Fabiomax (Fabiomassimo)]

Nice shot! and very beautiful colors that contrast to the great.
cheers,
Fabiomax

[Ross G]

Great capture Graeme.

Ross.