Seti Astro

This is a very dim nebula in Hydra and was a challenge to shoot.  Even at transit it is only 35degrees in the sky, decently small (10' across), dim(26.2mag/arcsec^2) and I have my neighbors roof to contend with.

What an intriguing object it is though!  There is some debate on whether it is a planetary nebula or a Stromgren sphere .  The central star is a binary pair of white dwarfs in a very tight orbit.  This is one of the rare times you can see the motion of the stars through the medium.  Especially in OIII you can see the wake it is forming as it is moving through the center part of the nebula.  As with all debated objects in astronomy there is tension on whether it is proper motion of the binary pair through the central gasses or the gasses moving past the binary pair and interacting with the strong magnetic fields the white dwarfs are creating.  Either way the visible motion is just amazing and something rarely seen.  We are also graced with a plethora of galaxies and even a Carbon Star in the frame.

Comments and suggestions appreciated!

Video I made on it:  https://youtu.be/Ajq6BxNScBY

Link to Astrobin:  https://astrob.in/tmkjum/0/

OIII Wake

Carbon Star

Telescope view, twisted back on itself and low in the sky!

Thanks for watching!  Hope the script helps out too!  TBH I didn't know how the community would even react to any of my videos.  I was expecting a lot of people just saying "you're doing it all wrong!" hahaha!  Glad it is helping!!

I think I got my digital signatures for my repository all squared away with this latest CPD update from PixInsight as well!  This should take care of not having to say "yes install anyways" and should ensure the script will be available in the future with the next core updates to PixInsight.

Well started the process to get digitally signed.  Submitted my keys to PixInsight and waiting on them now.  This does seem like a double edged sword.  It will definitely hinder us non-coders with even more stuff to learn limiting creativity in the community to a handful that are willing to jump through all the hoops.  At the same time it does heighten the security of the PixInsight platform.  I'm glad I was able to get it figured out so far!!

Another thing to learn!

Hey everyone!

I made my first 2 scripts in PixInsight and am pretty excited to share the NB to RGB Stars Combination Script.  I am not a coder and knew this would be a bit of a steep curve, but finally sat down and created a script to take your NB stars only images and combine them into a beautiful RGB stars image. The script is really intuitive. You add your linear Ha stars image, OIII stars image, and optionally SII stars image. There is also an option to give the image a Star Stretch exactly like my first Star Stretch script.

Leave any comments or suggestions!

 

Hey everyone.  I just want to say I made my first script in PixInsight!

I had a number of people ask me a good method of stretching their linear stars into a great non-linear state to use to screen them back in.  I figured this would be a good problem to tackle for my first script.

You select your linear color stars image from the dropdown.  You can leave the sliders at default and hit execute.  It'll run its magic and you'll have perfectly stretched stars ready for screening!

I have a video and a short about it if you want to see.

Link to download the script:  https://www.setiastr...sr-scripts     

It will be in a zip folder.  Just extract it and go in pixinsight to Scripts -> Feature Scripts to install it.   Once installed it will be under Scripts -> Utilities -> Star Stretch

Video

https://youtu.be/8_Jswk_wE0A

Video short with update about version 2

https://youtube.com/...U?feature=share

Comments or questions welcome!

Combining over 13hrs of RGB and 28hrs of SHO narrowband to reveal the galactic maelstrom in the heart of M101 The Pinwheel Galaxy.

I struggled with how I wanted to present the data and settled on an RGB-Continuum Subtracted HSO Foraxx Palette, I am presenting the full RGBHSO version and just the HSO foraxx versions.  I kept the stars in both and I thought it added to the images.

What I find really surprising are the structures not only in M101 but in NGC5474, NGC5477, and NGC5486.  There are some HII regions designated in the SRM2012 catalog, especially for NGC5474, but the others really haven't been studied much.

The other very cool item is NGC5471.  There is really nice structure in all 3 narrowband channels and Hubble actually did some observing on it as well.

Link to Astrobin: https://astrob.in/336nmk/0/

Video I made on this capture:  https://youtu.be/OyvWC2F5hyw

Comments appreciated!

All this data screams for some interaction, so please check out the interactive slider I made for this image too (should work on desktop and mobile)!

https://www.setiastro.com/m101slider

https://www.setiastro.com/galaxies

https://www.setiastro.com/m101slider

NGC5474

NGC5477

NGC5486

NGC5471

Ran across this object (2MASS J09572091+6847393) which showed up on my OIII continuum subtracted data, not in my Ha subtracted data, and since it had this greenish color I assumed it was a small PN.  Link to main image: https://astrob.in/kf7vjp/0/ When I looked it up it is listed as a Near IR source in the 2MASS catalogue of point sources.  I was not able to find any other information on it.  Anyone have any ideas on how to proceed further?

Even the Simbad image of it has the same OIII greenish cast that my image has.

GIF

Ha Continuum Subtracted

OIII Continuum Subtracted

RGB_HOO Combined

SIMBAD Reference

I also have a couple videos on Continuum Subtraction if it helps anyone.

Advanced Galaxy Processing Workflow:  https://youtu.be/L_P5Cr6B_ww

Easy Button for Continuum Subtraction: https://youtu.be/4xTknArd8AY

Using 48x900" each for Ha and OIII to enhance the RGB you can really see the tempest in the core of M106 and the giant streamer coming out of the galaxy.  There is a lot of deformation as well from past interations.  The narrowband data added greatly to many of the surrounding and background galaxies too. 

Looking through the annotations I decided to look up all the redshifts of the quasars present in my image.  (I have included the redshift and comoving radial distance in the annotated version).  By far the farthest object I have seen in any if my images Quasar SDSS J121451.31+471748.9 has a redshift z=3.176 and a comoving radial distance at a staggering 21.7 Billion Lightyears!!  The light from that object is over 11 Billion years old!

Comments appreciated!

Link to Astrobin:  https://astrob.in/ri2is3/0/

Video I made on this image:  https://youtu.be/uG5LFI5xm20

Close in of the Narrowband Continuum Subtracted Core, really showing the tempest of gas!

NGC4220 and 4218.  NGC4218 had some very cool narrowband in it

NGC4231 and 4232

NGC4217

Quasar SDSS J121451.31+471748.9, heavily stretched so be visible at a distance of 21.7 Billion Lightyears!!

Thanks! 

If I were to realocate my time I would not have spent it on SII.  It is sooo incredibly weak.  So that is my only recommendation, skip that channel! 

Abell 31 (SH2-290), what I am calling The Moon Jelly Nebula, is a very dim Planetary Nebula in Cancer.

Even with 32hrs of integration time it was a lot of effort to pull it out nicely from the background.  Ha was the strongest, and the core full of OIII was well visible.  SII on the other hand was almost nonexistent!  Abell31 is described as "ancient" but didn't find more on the age and lies around 2000 lightyears away.  It being so old is why it is sooo dim as all the gases are dispersing and very far from the central white dwarf now greatly reducing the gasses ionization.

In the surrounding starfield there is a handful galaxies and a lot of the discovered by GAIA and are very dim and faint.  There is no distance data to any of the GAIA galaxies I could find either.  The other interesting item is a very close double star HD76037A&B, they are just shy of 300 lightyears away and only 9 arcsec apart.  Although I couldn't find if they are true binaries or not, their parallax would suggest they probably are: 10.9939 and 11.0133 milli-arcsecs which is 296.01lyrs and 296.5lyrs away.

Link to Astrobin: https://astrob.in/8ktleh/0/

Link to a video I made on this image: https://youtu.be/wxrax_QcQS4

Comments always appreciated!

Moon Jelly VS Ha Channel

HD76037A&B

GAIA Galaxies

Thanks Olly!  I do have a C8 for a little more reach, but don't want to change OTAs over while still working on nebula.  I was happy with this little object in my refractor for sure.

Finally a clear night when I could finish getting data for this image!

NGC2346 in Foraxx HOO palette.

Not a whole lot of amateur images of this one.  It is quit small and had to push drizzling and plenty of strong dithering to bring out as much detail as I could.  Effective f/ ratio of f/12 at this resolution on my 120ST.

I did take deep long exposures of the broader area and there really isn't much at all surrounding this nebula.  I did an annotated zoomed out version even highlighting various types of stars and galaxies and only 2 galaxies and a handful of variable, red branch, and carbon stars.  Really nothing else!

The other thing I find just absolutely surprising is this was created by a dance of two stars.  They orbit so tightly their period is only 16days and is only split by spectroscopy.  When one went into a red giant phase the other star just plowed through the outer layers of it shredding it apart and flinging it into these two lobes you see.

Link to Astrobin:  https://astrob.in/2f779j/0/

Link to video I made for this image: https://youtu.be/OnoFk9Hez9Q

Comments appreciated!

Close in crop:

Data taken last August, but was never satisfied on the processing.  6 months later and the weather is nothing but cloudy nights so revisited this with more that I have learned in the last 6 months of processing.

Be sure to check out the full image as it is a 200 megapixel image!

In the larger mosaic you can see these aren't two different structure but just part of a larger giant bubble of activity including lot' of faint emissions in the whole image.  The bok globules and thin streamers coming off the Cygnus wall and the columns and Herbig-Haro objects in the Pelican are just amazing.  There is just a ton of dark "smoke" creating thin wisps forming the dark lane structure with hydrogen emissions peaking through.  Just so much going on in this region.  There are even white dwarfs sprinkled throughout the 116,000 stars in the image!!  No wonder it is so heavily imaged by everyone!

Video I made on this image: https://youtu.be/VJvMOGnMdwU

Link to Astrobin:  https://astrob.in/ijlycz/F/

Comments really appreciated!

Some close in crops:

Pelican

Cygnus Wall

Cobwebs of dust:

Smoke lanes:

A very dim cloud in the lower right (I adjusted some curves in the crop to bring it out more)

Thanks guys!!

I did use the desktop Aladin version, but that came up empty which is what started this goose chase.  I am going to have to take a look at HNSky, haven't heard of that. 

Glad I wasn't crazy in my thinking it had to be a broadband target too.  Go science!

Hi all!  Hope there is someone that can lend a hand in helping me identify an object near M106.  While looking through my data halfway through taking it (always want to do quick processing to see how things are shaping up), I noticed a small fuzzy red object that did not show up in Simbad, Aladin, or PixInsight annotate image. 

Coordinates of the object are:

RA       12 19 29.7
DEC  +47 43 35.3

It is very strong in my Red Channel and increasingly weak in Green, then almost none existent in Blue.  It shows up in my Hydrogen Channel as well.  Doing continuum subtraction completely removes the object so I am leaning toward it being a broadband object not a narrowband Ha object.  My strongest guess is some galaxy or really far away globular cluster/dwarf galaxy.

Thanks for the help!

5 hours ago, Seti Astro said:

Interesting find.  The JWST imaged this with NIRCAM

https://jwstfeed.com/PostView/FeedPost?ci=1697926508_jw02317-o001_t001_nircam_clear-f200w_i2d

 

The title for the observation: Initial mass function in the lowest metallicity protocluster in the Galaxy.

 

I guess SH2-284 holds the record in the low metallicity protocluster category

I took the data and zoomed in from my image in a video if anyone is curious!

https://youtu.be/B_QUOLAhl2o

Interesting find.  The JWST imaged this with NIRCAM

https://jwstfeed.com/PostView/FeedPost?ci=1697926508_jw02317-o001_t001_nircam_clear-f200w_i2d

The title for the observation: Initial mass function in the lowest metallicity protocluster in the Galaxy.

I guess SH2-284 holds the record in the low metallicity protocluster category

Thanks!

I saw the name on sharplesscatalog.com and went with it.  There is no well known name for this region, so maybe we come up with a better one!  I am at a loss for what wordly object it looks like to try and name it though. 

SH2-284 The Little Rosette

Lots of gorgeous structure with beautiful blue from OIII making a nice backdrop for various columns and dust lanes.  There are a number of unusual objects surrounding the area as well.  In my annotated version I highlighted Carbon stars, Peculiar Stars, Bubbles, and HII regions.  There is also a very strong SII red area directly below Bubble E79 that does not show up on any Simbad catalog and since it is most strongly in SII it may be a new structure!  There is also NGC2282 with its unusual dart structure that is unnamed as well.  The main bulb of SH2-284 is ionized by the bright young stars that form the cluster Dolidze 25.

Link to Astrobin for full resolution and crops: https://astrob.in/hkgw4u/0/
Link to my video on this image: https://youtu.be/boLzcUQv7l0

Full resolution downloads available too: https://www.setiastro.com/downloads

Comments always appreciated!!

Amazing detail on those faint fuzzies.  Great job!  

I second the wish on PI Annotate to only display objects above a certain magnitude.  No one wants those dead pixels annotated or the entire image filled in with every single stars designation. 

Really great image!  I recently imaged it too and found OIII much weaker than SII as well.  Were you as intrigued as what caused the OIII bubble structures in the core as I was too??  (I was calling it the Eye of Ra nebula https://astrob.in/wyeje6/0/)

I'm surprised more people aren't imaging this target!

What settings are you using (alignment points, % stacked, etc) in autostakkert?  Looks like maybe really bad seeing and stacking causing the artifacts.  There is also Autostakkert!4 out now too.  Are you using version 3 or 4?