My sharpest Ant Nebula

[tornado33]

Hi all
Skies were clear tonight and seeing not too bad. here is my best image yet of MZ3 the Ant nebula in Norma. Ive shown a rull res. crop, ans well as a low res full frame
A full res. frame is here

Image is 8x5mins ISO200. UV/IR filter, baader MPCC coma corrector, hutech modded 350D, 10 inch f5.6 newtonian, off axis hand guided.

Such a bright nebula, shows up in ISO1600 images of just a few seconds. I didnt do my usual 10 minute subs as it would be over exposed. Amazing yet again such an object excaped the NGC catalogue, but it is very bright in red, not green so would be fairly faint visually.

The full frame pics show faint red nebulosity to the right of the Ant Nebula.
Scott

[alan meehan (Alan)]

Nice and sharp looks great
AL

[RB (Andrew)]

Terrific capture Scott !

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Fantastic Scott

Good to hear you are out... and doing what I should be doing too .

Mike

[Ross G]

Great photo Scott.

Such a bright red.

Thanks.

Ross.

[tornado33]

Thanks all.
Nice pun there Mike too
yep its one of the reddest objects Ive ever come across. In fact it emits a fair bit of Infra red as well, heres a pic I took last year through an Infra red pass filter, about 1000nm passband. Probably a lot of dust as well as hydrogen.
Scott

[jase (Jason)]

Fantastic composition Scott. I don't think I've seen such a super wide field of this challenging target. To make it more interesting, I can't believe you're still hand guiding. Kudos for keeping it real! Thanks again for sharing this lovely view.

[Paul Haese]

On the crop version I can just make out the legs top and bottom. Nice a good acheivement for the scale. Nicely done.

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

Very happy to see you out there again. Another fine image.!

[Alchemy (Clive)]

You've definitely been one for chasing the planetaries, another for the collection,
I've been imaging for the last three nights given the untypical weather we've had, .... I'm zonked,..... tough gig with the hand guiding, don't know how you do it, well done.

[TrevorW]

that'll be the ants pants

[tornado33]

many thanks all. I certainly needed the calm night too, accurate guiding in any wind is impossible.

I reckon its a pity the HST images of it were not shown in true colour, rather then the hubble pallete
Scott

[Lester]

Very nice detailed view Scott, of such a small planetary. Can see its legs = great achievement. You are the master of the old art of manual guiding.