Placidus has pretty good light grasp but is strongly limited by seeing. Best suited to huge faint things. Here we have a crack at the exact opposite, with limited success.
NGC 5189 is a beautiful planetary in Musca, showing strong spiral structure, like water from a rotated garden hose. Length about 3 min arc. Hubble palette. 6 x 1hr subs in each channel. One explanation for the structure is that there is a binary companion, and polar jets are precessing. The whole thing is reminiscent of a sea-horse or a tiny embryonic dragon.
The Eight Burst nebula in Antlia, NGC 3132, is half that size. Very bright. 3 x 30 min subs in each channel. There is an egg-shaped cavity filled with blue OIII emission. The cavity is surrounded by a yellow-green beard, stronger in H-alpha and SII. Within that cavity, one can just make out what appears to be an equatorial ring, seen almost edge-on, dividing the cavity into halves. The general effect is of a microscopic creature such as a paramecium.
Best,
M & T
Last edited by Placidus; 17-05-2016 at 07:50 AM.
Reason: Poetic licence
These tiny PNs are great challenging targets MnT. These two little fellas have been done proud in that there is much detail to be explored and the colour rendition works very well.
I found 5189 to be quite hard to get really sharp without over sharpening it, or making it looked like it has been over sharpened. I like the colour of both sets. It makes you wonder if you would benefit from an AO in your system.
Not bad results overall. I'm not sure how much more you could do if you're limited by the seeing.
Thanks Chris. The seeing's not the worst in the world - typically about 1.8 to 2.2 sec arc FWHM. Currently it's been very unpredictable, anywhere from 1.5 (rejoice) to 3.5 sec arc (watch movie).
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ryderscope
These tiny PNs are great challenging targets MnT. These two little fellas have been done proud in that there is much detail to be explored and the colour rendition works very well.
Thanks Rodney. That's encouraging.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul Haese
I found 5189 to be quite hard to get really sharp without over sharpening it, or making it looked like it has been over sharpened. I like the colour of both sets. It makes you wonder if you would benefit from an AO in your system.
Cheers, Paul. I think if we were to start again after a bush fire, we'd investigate AO. Would have been great for the recent lambda centauri shot!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Retrograde
Nice Job Mike & Trish.
These are obviously very challenging targets.
Thanks, Pete.
Quote:
Originally Posted by RickS
A lovely pair of delicate gems, M&T! The colour is great and they are fascinating objects. Shame about your seeing. We have been spoilt by Hubble pics
Cheers,
Rick.
Thanks muchly, Rick. They are very pretty. The Hubble Eight Burst is magical. Oh to see such things. Perhaps the thing that got me into astronomy (and science in general) as a nipper was that what was in the textbook really proved to be up there, and we could see for ourselves. Almost nothing else that we were taught as kids (eg sport builds character and makes you a man, and I'm doing this for your own good) turned out to be true.
Nicely done! I have on a couple of occasions tossed up the idea of attempting the Eight Burst nebula with my baby refractor (compared to your giant scope!) but it is just so small at 670mm
Hubble really has set an unattainable benchmark for us amateurs hehe
Nicely done! I have on a couple of occasions tossed up the idea of attempting the Eight Burst nebula with my baby refractor (compared to your giant scope!) but it is just so small at 670mm
Hubble really has set an unattainable benchmark for us amateurs hehe
Solution on a budget: Stick a camera with ICX 834 at the end of your telescope with 670mm fl, that will give you 0.95" pp. Collect sufficient number of subs and drizzle integrate them to increase resolution to less than 0.5"pp. It won't give you the same level of detail as a bigger telescope, but you should still get pleasing results even for small targets :-)
I find my CDK17 is quite sensitive to seeing as well. The Honders though is not particularly nor is it that sensitive to light pollution. That's AP knowhow for you.
Good stuff guys, a couple of interesting targets. I was tossing up having a crack at these myself, but then figured with my imaging scale I was probably better off sticking with something a bit bigger... and then you post these... saves me the trouble!
Skilfully processed two beautiful gems that I was not aware of at all. Awesome work Mike and Trish
Thanks, Suavi. I'd had a crack at the eight burst something like eight years ago, and just got the faintest hint of that equatorial septum or wall or division. It's a bit more obvious this time. Only became aware of the Musca spiral planetary over the last two years or so via images by Rolf Olsen, Geoff Smith, and Paul Haese.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Atmos
Nicely done! I have on a couple of occasions tossed up the idea of attempting the Eight Burst nebula with my baby refractor (compared to your giant scope!) but it is just so small at 670mm
Hubble really has set an unattainable benchmark for us amateurs hehe
Thanks, Colin. The Eight Burst is very bright, a bit like the Bug in Scorpius, so it's quick to photograph. Might be worth a shot.
Quote:
Originally Posted by rustigsmed
very nice M& T,
good to see you use your FL for some of these PN's they are fantastic and so varied.
cheers
Cheers, Russell. The variety is certainly the spice. Fascinating that the same basic underlying mechanism (atmospheric expulsion by hot collapsing post-nuclear core) should, when combined with binary companions, planetary discs, magnetic fields, etc, produce such an extraordinary menagerie.
Quote:
Originally Posted by gregbradley
Nice shots Mike.
I find my CDK17 is quite sensitive to seeing as well. The Honders though is not particularly nor is it that sensitive to light pollution. That's AP knowhow for you.
Greg.
Hi, Greg. The Honders is an astonishing piece of kit, but in addition, for any given technology above six inches, I believe that the larger the aperture, the more six inch parcels of turbulent air we look through, and the more overlapping rubber-stamp copies of the target we blur together. A six inch refractor, a Barlow, and tiny pixels might be the best instrument for the Eight Burst. Dunno.
Quote:
Originally Posted by codemonkey
Good stuff guys, a couple of interesting targets. I was tossing up having a crack at these myself, but then figured with my imaging scale I was probably better off sticking with something a bit bigger... and then you post these... saves me the trouble!
Nice targets and Images M-T, PN's are becoming popular, thus a little more exciting each new image coming through, these a really very good & inspiring !
Wondering what F/Length you used for these - guessing around the 2meter range ?
Cheers ..
Nice targets and Images M-T, PN's are becoming popular, thus a little more exciting each new image coming through, these a really very good & inspiring !
Wondering what F/Length you used for these - guessing around the 2meter range ?
Cheers ..
Thanks muchly, Bob. Focal length is 3454 mm.
Quote:
Originally Posted by topheart
Good captures M+T
Cheers,
Tim
Thanks, Tim. Tiny PN's don't have quite the Bang for Buck of the Tarantula, but they're kinda cute, and it's interesting to try to imagine what is going on in their innards.
