NGC3918 Blue Planetary

[Robby]

Hi,
As mentioned in the EtaC thread from Gary, I tackled the Blue Planetary tonight. Pretty easy target and just something different. Actually it was fortunate that it was easy as no sooner had I finished it the clouds started rolling in!
I have taken the liberty of adding a comparison of my image with a Hubble Space Telescope image. I'm sure you agree which is the best image.
Cheers

PS. I've posted a poll for you to decide which is the best image... Enjoy.

[Robby]

Here's the images!

[seeker372011 (Narayan)]

Robby's by a zsquillion light years. Why call it a blue planetary if it is going be some other colour, eh?

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

Hubbles got the colour all wrong.

Great minds and everything Robby, I've been thinking about how to go about capturing that one. I saw it for the first time last winter (the intensity of the colour quite stunned me), and as it's just starting to get in a decent position up here, I was wondering what technique to use. I've been considering using extended eyepiece projection, either positive or negative, but I'm not sure I'd be able to capture enough colour with such magnification. What technique have you used? If it was prime focus with the image enlarged, you've done a wonderful job getting it that sharply focused.

[Starkler (Geoff)]

You forgot a poll option, " the eyepiece view "

Seriously , nice image. I'll always remember 3918 as the first planetary I ever saw.

[rumples riot]

Nice image Robby, keep em coming. Incidently, I vote for hubble, but yours is a close second. Seriously.

[gaa_ian (Ian)]

Great image Robby
Yours is cool ...love the deep blue
Hubble comes a close second

[iceman (Mike)]

Nice one Robby! At least yours is blue!

I haven't seen that planetary.. will have to be one of my targets tomorrow night.

[gbeal]

Robbed,
nice one, and very eyepiece like.
Clouds appeared earlier here, so nothing from me.
Good to see you are keeping the home fires burning though.
Gary

[Robby]

Thanks for the votes.... Just a bit of fun ay!
Details for the image are
10x15s exposures at ISO800. Any longer and I'd lose the Blue.
C8 @ f/10, Canon 300D camera.
Images were stacked only to reduce noise. No other processing was done. No image enlargement applied, but it was cropped.
Cheers

[ving (David)]

well, the hubbles does have more detail but as others have mentioned they have the colour wrong

excellent shot

[Robby]

It seems we have a few challengers with 3 vote's for I can do better (at time of reading)!
I'm looking forward to seeing them. Bring it on!
Cheers

[ving (David)]

ere you go!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v46/ving68/bluneb.bmp

[iceman (Mike)]

hahaha

[ving (David)]

just look at that clarity...

[Robby]

Ha ha ha... Some people are just too clever arn't they!...
Ice, you'd better ad ving's option to the poll....
Cheers

[silvinator]

Robby, your pic is that yellow looking blob and hubble's is the blue one? oh...wait...lol
I really like the blueness of your pic robby, is it a difficult object to find? what mag is it? it's a great image by the way, I voted for your pic (hehe, the blue one I mean )

[Robby]

Hi Silvie,
Yeah pretty easy to find, but helps if you have a good star chart. Run a line west to east through the short arm of the southern cross and it's pretty much that distance east of crux.
Pretty small disk in a telescope. Needs probably at least 150x to make out the disk. Kinda like Neptune, but bigger and brighter. Mag 8.
Happy hunting!

[silvinator]

wow, it's so close to the southern cross. I had no idea! All this time and I've probably just swung blindy by it just to get to the jewel box! Thanks for that Robby

[ving (David)]

I am gunna have a go at it too!

my first planetary was the one in corvus.

does it look blue thru the ep?