Barnard 86 and Beyond

[SkyViking (Rolf)]

Hi All,

Here is another image from my chunk of recently collected data. This time of Barnard 86, my favourite dark nebula.

Hi-res image (1.4 MB) is here: http://www.pbase.com/rolfolsen/image/143683787/original

Barnard 86 is a dense molecular cloud visible as a prominent dark patch in the direction toward the galactic centre. Next to it lies the brilliant young cluster NGC 6520. It most likely condensed out of this cloud only a few million years ago. Also visible is the heavily obscured globular cluster Djorg 2 near the left edge of the image.
The background is a rich blanket of tens of thousands of stars in the Milky Way's central bulge. Among them a couple of deep red carbon stars stand out, for example one half way between Barnard 86 and Djorg 2.
Barnard 86 spans about 20 light years and lies 5500 light years away in the constellation Sagittarius.

Image details:
Date: 23-24 May 2012
Exposure: LRGB 69:28:24:24, total 2hrs 25mins
Telescope: 10" Serrurier Truss Newtonian
Camera: QSI 683wsg with Lodestar guider
Filters: Astrodon LRGB E-Series Gen 2
Taken from my observatory in Auckland, New Zealand

Oh, and I thought I'd throw in the old ToUCam version for comparison, just for fun - feel free to have a laugh

Hope you enjoy, comments and critique is welcome as always.

Regards,
Rolf

[omegacrux (David)]

Nice pic way big difference in detail
A lot of people cut there teeth on those toucams
Still do I think

Dave

[multiweb (Marc)]

Very cool close-up Rolf of an interesting object. I have a widefield here that shows it in a much larger context. Where's wally?

[bmitchell82 (Brendan)]

Nice dark neb 10" is where you start kicking off with these dark beauties well done

[Paul Haese]

Aside from some minor flex or guiding related issue with stars I like this image. Star colour is great and the subjects really stand out. Very smooth.

[stevous67 (Steve M)]

Nice image Rolf. Interesting combination of objects, I see why you like it.

Steve

[SkyViking (Rolf)]

Originally Posted by omegacrux

Nice pic way big difference in detail
A lot of people cut there teeth on those toucams
Still do I think
Dave

Thanks Dave, yes I sure learned heaps from using the ToUCam for so many years.

Originally Posted by multiweb

Very cool close-up Rolf of an interesting object. I have a widefield here that shows it in a much larger context. Where's wally?

Thank you Marc, and nice shot! This nebula is so dark, it really pops out even in the widefield. I noticed it's also very obvious visually, a sight to behold.

Originally Posted by bmitchell82

Nice dark neb 10" is where you start kicking off with these dark beauties well done

Thanks Brendan, yeah there are lots of them to choose from, I'm thinking of maybe doing the Snake soon.

Originally Posted by Paul Haese

Aside from some minor flex or guiding related issue with stars I like this image. Star colour is great and the subjects really stand out. Very smooth.

Thank you Paul, guiding was within 1/2 pixel all the way but I'm still tweaking the spacing for the MPCC. I got a new spacer in the mail yesterday so maybe that'll help.

Originally Posted by stevous67

Nice image Rolf. Interesting combination of objects, I see why you like it.
Steve

Thank you very much Steve, glad you liked it.