M27 with fuzzy bits

[MartinB]

This has been a real struggle over the past 2 months. Captured over 4 nights in short spells between clouds. Despite everything I did have some decent seeing conditions. I really wanted to capture the outer halo and include some of the OIII that's in there. I used 30 min subs, if I'd had reliable nights it would have been 1 hour since the background was still pretty dark and I wasn't really getting over the read noise hump.

There is a lovely guide star for the SX AO unit which saw me guiding at 10 cycles per second

Scope: 10" LX200R at F7 (Celestron 0.63 reducer)

Camera: QSI 532 ws + SX active optics

Filters: Baader 7/8nm Ha and OIII

Captured, calibrated and combined with Maxim. Deconvolved with CCDStack and processed in PS. Ha mapped to red and OIII to both green and blue. I used a luminence made up of Ha and OIII. Quite hard work processing with a lot of returns to the drawing board but happy with it now.

[psemil]

Ohh...

Outstanding.

[barkis]

Fantastic image Martin, but almost unrecognisable as M27 since so much extra nebulosity is being extracted from this planetary nebula.

Not complaining of course, it's testament to the capabilities of the equipment, techniques and skills of the astrophotographer of century21. I was just so familiar with the old hourglass shape .

Ron.

[Sam]

Wow, awesome result Martin and heaps of detail in the outer parts of the nebula. What a lovely shot!

[zedds]

Fantastic image.

[Earl]

some really nice outer nebulosity there !

[MartinB]

Fantastic image Martin, but almost unrecognisable as M27 since so much extra nebulosity is being extracted from this planetary nebula.

Not complaining of course, it's testament to the capabilities of the equipment, techniques and skills of the astrophotographer of century21. I was just so familiar with the old hourglass shape .

Ron.

Here you are Ron, without the dim bits

[barkis]

Here you are Ron, without the dim bits

Ah! yes, that's what my ancient eyes are used to seeing, although I'm gradually becoming used to the newer model .

[steppenwolf]

Really excellent, Martin - really deep. It is quite amazing to see this well known object with all those extra tendrils.

[jgs001]

Excellent result Martin, well worth all the hard work, effort, and hair loss

[Coco]

Fantastic Martin... love that extended nebulosity that Ron sort of meant 'unfamiliar' with and me too....

Stunning stuff... did you benefit form the last 3 unbroken nights likes Dave Smith and the Essex peeps.. ???

Lancashire & Irish sea was cloud magnet for us in the NW as usual. . . . might be good for Blackpool's illuminations but for us in the rest of Lancashire its a nightmare ..

slightly off topic...

When the cloud comes in and the luminations are on I can see the lazers and spot lighths here in Penwortham, borough south of Preston and 25 miles east of B'Pool crow flies ... Thankfully its over by 11PM..

For TBO NW coast Lancashire observers and imagers..

Blackpool Illuminations What time is switch on? - Blackpool Lights 2011

[MartinB]

Stunning stuff... did you benefit form the last 3 unbroken nights likes Dave Smith and the Essex peeps.. ???

That would have been Nirvana Guy! No it was 2 hours grabbed here and there. My last session was Thurs 1st Sept when I managed 7x30 min subs, my best session for over 2 months!

Forgot to mention Ha 10x30mins OIII 9x30mins

Thanks for the nice comments everyone

[foundaplanet]

Fabulous image. Great detail and that outer shell makes it a big wow for me.

[Dann]

Wow that's remarkable, not only the image but 30 min exposures!

I hope you didn't have to discard many of those?

[Adz]

Fantastic image you have produced there, well done

[ollypenrice]

Truly marvellous, the long subs showing us all the way, I think. Seamless processing, too.

Have you ever come across Ian King's Ha,O111, Blue version? I've often pondered that possibility.

Olly

[Keiran]

That is a very deep image, loving it.... Sound like you have had trouble from the start putting this together, but all that hard work has really paid off. Great work looking forward to seeing more

[Spr]

Excellent Martin,

always been impressed when I see the extended bar but you've gone much further without looking forced.

Darren

[Austin]

That's a great image! I love the contrast in colour and the extended nebulosity

[Psychobilly]

That really is rather special...

Peter...

[Beyond_Vision]

Well worth all the effort Martin the detail is remarkable. You get a real sense of the shape of the nebula as the image comes out of the page at you.

Regards

Kevin

[Aris Panagiotopoulos]

Great Job you've done there!

[cloudbuster]

quite simply superb!

[MartinB]

Thanks again everyone, very encouraging

[paulobao]

Fantastic M27 . I allways like to see the OIII in the outer shell (because there is lot of OII signal there).

The AO seems to do a great work. It will be in my shopping list (that should be specially great in the astrometry department).

Congratulations Martin!

Cheers,

paulo