Planetary Nebula NGC246

[gregbradley]

After seeing several of Mike's fabulous planetary nebula images I thought I would try a few.

This is the first one I have taken. Its a bit of a struggle to get the colour right as net images show it more in this colour yet the Ha is very bright. Letting the Ha dominate ends up in an all red nebula. So I struck this balance.

AP RHA, SX Trius 694 AP1600.

http://www.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/161364585/large

http://www.pbase.com/gregbradley/ima...64585/original

Greg.

[Slawomir (Suavi)]

That is a very nice image of NGC246 Greg

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

One down...1000 to go

Nice work Greg

Mike

[RobF (Rob)]

Great image Greg. More please

[Somnium (Aidan)]

Great shot Greg! Just wondering why you used the rha on this and not the cdk 17 ( if I am remembering correctly that you have one )?

[Ryderscope (Rodney)]

And a very handsome little planetary it is too Greg. I like the magenta appearance as well.
R

[Stevec35 (Steve)]

Looks a shade harsh to me Greg but it's a nice well resolved image just the same

Cheers

Steve

[Placidus (Mike and Trish)]

Good work. Lots of detail.

We were actually going to do this fellow last night, but decided the moon was too close and too bright.

Just had a look at my last attempt from 2010. Oh dear. You've lifted the bar.

[gregbradley]

Originally Posted by Slawomir

That is a very nice image of NGC246 Greg

Thanks Slawomir.Its quite bright in Ha and LRGB for that matter. I find it surprising these planetary nebula can be so bright.

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

One down...1000 to go

Nice work Greg

Mike

Hehe. Thanks Mike and thanks for the inspiration.

Originally Posted by RobF

Great image Greg. More please

I have plenty of images awaiting processing. El Nino is goof for imaging opportuntities.

Originally Posted by Somnium

Great shot Greg! Just wondering why you used the rha on this and not the cdk 17 ( if I am remembering correctly that you have one )?

Fair question. I plan on imaging with both on many targets. I just have to send off my 2nd filter wheel to FLI as an in the field upgrade was not working (they changed the design of the filter wheel since this was made so it'll end up being virtually all new).

Once I get that back I will be doing imaging of the same object with both with the Proline 16803 on the CDk17 and the Trius on the RHA (pixel size works on the RHA and it does with the CDK but not ideal). The image scales this way will be reasonably close which will make processing easier. Both setups are independent run on a different computer. Also I think the RHA is sharper than the CDK and its setup in tune etc.

Greg.

[gregbradley]

Originally Posted by Ryderscope

And a very handsome little planetary it is too Greg. I like the magenta appearance as well.
R

Thanks for that. It has some detail in it.

Originally Posted by Stevec35

Looks a shade harsh to me Greg but it's a nice well resolved image just the same

Cheers

Steve

Perhaps a tad. Its a fine line between not sharp enough and oversharpened.
I agree I am on the border. I tweaked it to the point where I was getting the detail I wanted without sharpening artifacts.

Originally Posted by Placidus

Good work. Lots of detail.

We were actually going to do this fellow last night, but decided the moon was too close and too bright.

Just had a look at my last attempt from 2010. Oh dear. You've lifted the bar.

Thanks for the compliment. I also find even with narrowband filters too close to the moon still can get gradients with a 5nm Ha. Although come to think of it I haven't seen that on the RHA yet.It must have superb baffling.

Greg.

[LewisM]

Wonderful Greg! Certainly different to the usual teal-blue

Here's my pip squeak effort from 2 years ago FL102S and SXVR-M25C : about 45 minutes total by memory

[RickS (Rick)]

A cute little critter, Greg!

[gregbradley]

Originally Posted by LewisM

Wonderful Greg! Certainly different to the usual teal-blue

Here's my pip squeak effort from 2 years ago FL102S and SXVR-M25C : about 45 minutes total by memory

Nice Lewis. Yeah the images on the net were mostly that colour or similar and they are all LRGB images. The Ha is very bright so it can easily turn it all red which it did in one version. So trying to get the detail out of the Ha without an all red image was the challenge.

Originally Posted by RickS

A cute little critter, Greg!

Its unusual. I was happy the tendrils of the nebula were showing up. I put that down to the fairly long exposure time gives more ability to bring things out in processing.

Cheers Rick.

Greg.

[IanP]

Looks like GESUNDHEIT-pill , very nice Greg ..

[gregbradley]

Originally Posted by IanP

Looks like GESUNDHEIT-pill , very nice Greg ..

Yes it does.

Greg.

[Shiraz (Ray)]

nice work Greg. balancing colour in NB seems to be an art and you have done well to bring out the structure without overloading the colour.