Menzel 2, PN in Norma

[tornado33]

Hi all
Finally some clear weather arrives. heres the 2nd Menzel planetary nebula.
6x10 mins ISO800. Baader MPCC coma corrector. LPS filter. Hutech modded 350D camera. 10 inch f5.6 newtonian. Off axis hand guided as usual. Sky lightening with moonlight at the end of the imaging run. The 3rd sub in the run was not used due to a sudden deteoriation in seeing, making it noticably soft. All the others were much better. Odd the seeing got so bad for less than 10 mins before returning to the better seeing it was before.

Full size full frame version here

One more Menzel planetary to go now, MZ3 the Ant Nebula.
Scott

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

The new standard in autoguiders is the Scotty Research Series Remote Guiding Head

Nice work

Mike

[Ric]

Lovely capture Scott.

It certainly buries itself in amongst the back drop of stars.

Cheers

[Alchemy (Clive)]

wow, if you didnt know it was there and looked for it, you might miss it. definitely a tough one.

[Lester]

Very, very nice capture of this P.N.

Thanks.

[Tamtarn]

This is another great image of an obscure PN Scott.

It must be very satisfying gathering a selection of not too often seen objects. Thanks for posting

[Matty P (Matt)]

Great capture Scott. A nice little PN hiding among all the stars.

Well done.

[Hagar (Doug)]

Nice capture Scott, This is a small one for sure. Your guiding by hand is way better than I can do with a guider.

Well done Scott.

[tornado33]

Thanks all
The "Scotty Research Series Remote Guiding Head" even has a sort of PEC, where I know that every few mins the drive speeds up and then slows down slightly as the gear takes up another tooth, and I adjust a speed dial accordingly, while making instantaneous corrections with fast and slow buttons. Its still a challenge guiding when only faint guidestars are available.

After getting MZ3 I will see what other lesser known but nice planetaries I can dig up.
Scott