Gem Cluster NGC3293 & Gabriela Mistral Nebula NGC3324

[Emuhead (Andrew)]

NGC 3293 in the center of the image, is known as the Gem Cluster, and its an open cluster of young stars in the Carina constellation.
The brightest stars are blue supergiants and theres also a pulsating red supergiant, named V361 Carinae.
This region would have been a starless cloud of gas and dust about ten million years ago, and then star formation began.

NGC 3324 in the lower left of the image is an open cluster located 7,560 ly from Earth.
The intense ultraviolet radiation from several of NGC 3324's hot young stars causes the gas cloud to glow with rich colours, and combined with the stars stellar winds has blown open a hollow in the surrounding gas and dust.
It is closely associated with the emission nebula IC 2599, and the two are often confused as a single object which has been nicknamed the "Gabriela Mistral Nebula". This is due to its resemblance to the side profile of Chilean poet, who received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1945.



Taken 26.02.2022 from Bortle 6 skies, Melbourne, Victoria.
Quattro 10", EQ6R Pro, ASI2600MM Pro, 3nm Astrodon & RGB Astrodon filters, ASIAir Pro. 5 hours of integration (Ha, Oiii, RGB stars) combined in HaGO palette, and 6 hours of integration (same but including an hour of Sii) in the alternate palette.

It was a humid night so and dew formed on my primary mirror fairly early which I wasnt prepared for (any suggestions there would be very welcome) and so the nights data capture was cut short. Having said that I'm happy with the results.

Hope you like them!


Astrobin link here for HaGO version, and here for alternate version including Siii.

[Dave882 (David)]

Wow stunning shots! The version including the Sii is particularly spectacular.

[Startrek (Martin)]

Lovely images which shows the vast extent of nebulosity around the Gem cluster region
Sii image for me as the HaGO seems a bit too saturated with colour and brightness ( only my preference)
Well done !!
I use Kendrick dew heater straps around my 8” newt both ends to prevent dewing on the primary and secondary. Works ok but you need to run them up high 75% for the first hour then back off to 50% for the remainder of the session. The straps are controlled by an Orion 4 channel dew zapper.For a 10” OTA you may have to wrap 2 straps for the primary side by side at the end of the OTA to warm the backend up enough to prevent dew. All depends how heavy dew is on the night.

[SB (Chris)]

Very nice Andrew! I like the image with the Sii.

How to you find the weight of the Quattro 10” on the EQ6-R?

SB

[Emuhead (Andrew)]

Much appreciated David, Martin, Chris! Glad you like them. It seems the orange/blue version is the favourite but for me, it's the HaGO version.

Thanks for the tip regarding a couple of dew heater straps, I'll have to do that next time. Thought i wouldn't need to worry about dew on the primary at all but clearly that isn't impervious to dew either. Was also thinking a primary fan might work a little too if the air makes its way into & up the tube.

Also, Chris, it's def at the mounts limit, if not a little passed it i think. I had to clean my clutches to remove residual factory grease that was causing the ota to simply stop moving at a certain point when slewing. Hoping that fix worked, otherwise I'll be sticking to the 8".