Re-Heated Lobster Anyone??

[Dave882 (David)]

Well it seems to be the month for working on old data - so here's a view of the heart of NGC6357 that was captured some months ago, an area that I just love! With beautiful pillar structures, as well as the Pismis 24 cluster in the mix - it's such a cool spot to park and take in the view.

I took this data in May and June. The reason it's taken so long to get to was that the initial data in May was taken on an absolutely stunningly clear night, with insane guiding and star sizes better than I've had all year. With only about 2 hours of data the stack was super noisy, I wanted to add more to deal with the noise but just couldn't match the same data quality and mixing the sets just killed it... It took a lot of faffing around in APP now with new data and I think I've got the best I can do from it (still a bit of a compromise but not so bad).

I should also mention that the first night I was shooting at native FL 3910mm with the c14 (non edge) , where as on the other nights it was with the 0.7x reducer. Big noisy-borders were cropped.

c14 (non edge) @ 3910 & 2700mm
eq8 Pro
IDAS NBZ filter
Approx 4hrs of 2min subs (whittled down from about double that)
Celestron OAG w/ ASI290mm
ASIAIR / APP / PS
2xBinned in processing

Thanks for looking!

[marc4darkskies (Marcus)]

Well done Dave! Good colour and you've got a heck of an image scale going on there so good detail too - just what this field needs. Yes, a bit of noise, but it's not toooo distracting ... but you certainly could use more data (perhaps thow in some Ha). It's a very interesting area too with a very massive cluster (Pismis 24) driving the emissions (see my version from 2020 and details of the cluster).

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Thats excellent Dave, a great feature that and some fine resolution there indeed Is this just using the data from the excellent night only or have you blended newer data in too? Love to see just the 2hrs of excellent data, just B&W even, if you have it?

Mike

[Dave882 (David)]

Originally Posted by marc4darkskies

Well done Dave! Good colour and you've got a heck of an image scale going on there so good detail too - just what this field needs. Yes, a bit of noise, but it's not toooo distracting ... but you certainly could use more data (perhaps thow in some Ha). It's a very interesting area too with a very massive cluster (Pismis 24) driving the emissions (see my version from 2020 and details of the cluster).

Thanks mate- wowsers that’s a stunning image- I love how 3dimensional the nebulously is and really gives me something to aim for with more data, but I think you rc360s optics may have me beat . The Pismis24 cluster map is also very nice too! I’ll revisit next year and see if I can add some more time to it - there’s A LOT of targets on that list..

[Dave882 (David)]

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

Thats excellent Dave, a great feature that and some fine resolution there indeed Is this just using the data from the excellent night only or have you blended newer data in too? Love to see just the 2hrs of excellent data, just B&W even, if you have it?

Mike

Thanks Mike- yes it’s a bit of a blended image and I’ll have a hunt for the original set when I’m back in the computer. But I do still have a screen grab of the live capture from May on my phone! Was funny cause the only reason I had the reducer off was because I was doing some testing on my oag but when I saw the data coming in…

[pkinchington (Peter (Kanga))]

Nice one Dave!


Cheers Kanga

[Nikolas (Nik)]

Nice Dave

Am I the only one who sees a giant Koala as well?

[Startrek (Martin)]

Dave ,
Wow that’s super deep on this nebula and your guiding is nuts
Lovely image with loads of interesting details
Gives me hope with my EQ8-R pro , when the weather improves and I get down there to use it
I don’t know how you manage to balance that beast and get sub 0.30 arc sec guiding , tremendous
Mono has gotta be on the cards in the future !!
Well done again !!
Cheers
Martin

[Stephane]

Another lovely image Dave with so much to look at. I’ve haven’t imaged this area yet, maybe next year. I like both versions, but am leaning toward the uncropped one. Well done.

[Addos (Adam)]

great shot dave! thats such a beast of a scope

[Dave882 (David)]

Thanks Peter, Nik, Martin, Stephane, Adam. Glad the data finally made it to a final image, and good to have something to work on with all this cloud!

Nik- my gosh I can’t believe I never saw that! Now all I can see is Koalas

Stephane- yeah I agree. It looks much better with the koala in view! It’s kind of mind-bending to consider what detail lies within such a tiny tiny piece of sky!

Martin- if only I had figures like that every night - I can probably count on one hand the nights I’ve had that kind of guiding this year. Normally a good night is 0.6ish, and a great night is 0.4-0.5! I think I did the Sombrero with similar conditions earlier this year- it’s a wonderful feeling when you have a night when you can get close to the full potential out of a big scope. Wonderful, but rare.

[AdamJL]

Wonderful resolution!

[oska (John)]

Always great Dave, always. The koala is giving the finger on the down low too

[Dave882 (David)]

Thanks Adam & John much appreciated