The True extent of the Pacman ........NGC281 in mono

[swag72]

I have 44 fits in total  When I looked at some individual stacks there was no gradient evidence. Also, as I went along I processed at the 20, 30 and 44 subs stage. I watched the build up of the detail with the sub increase ............ so I figured that it was real

[symesie04]

Yet another incredible image Sara.

[steppenwolf]

Without a doubt there is some stunning new data in there, Sara - gorgeous stuff! Colour would be nice too but this mono image is so loaded with new goodies that it hardly needs anything 'extra'.

[swag72]

Thanks both - I am planning on some colour on this one - not sure what yet though!

[carastro]

Well I'm having a struggle to even compare it with the usual image that we see it's almost unrecognisable apart from the dark nebula across the middle. .  

Pretty amazing Sara.

Carole 

[Gina]

I have considered imaging the Pacman but it always seemed rather dull to me but this really brings out that extra something   I shall be very interested to see your colour version Sara, as I love colour and you really have the knack of producing beautifully colourful images

[ianaiken]

Go on Sara do it push it to 60 min subs :-)

[ianaiken]

Also meant to say that this is absolutely amazing!

[swag72]

Thanks all!!! I think that the colour will probably be next year now

[Fay]

Really fantastic Sara,  you've really pushed the boundary!

Fay

[Tim]

You can link the hydrogen cloud up right over to the Heart & Soul nebula with dark enough skies Sara, and probably a higher bandpass Ha filter maybe, 6 or 7nm. Not sure if it's worth it though other than for academic purposes, pretty featureless area really.

Did I read a couple of comments right in the thread that the Pacman is a boring target????  It's not fantastic in RGB granted, but with narrowband filters it becomes one of the most unusual targets in the northern sky, and also one of the brightest SII targets, if there is such a thing.

Tim

[Gina]

This is definitely on my list for the next DSO to image   If only the weather would cooperate!!! Absolutely dreadful here and no sign of much improvement

[swag72]

Cheers Tim. I'm guilty as charged with thinking the Pacman is boring!! Although I may actually make it colour.... Next year!! This was really just a full moon experiment to get me off the sofa!

[Tim]

A real achievement would be to give depth and structure to the black dense dust cloud. From what I can make out it is a multi layered thing with some extremely bright stuff going on inside, but it always tends to look flat in pictures. They reckon that dinky little bok globules may have enough mass over time to create new stars, so there just has to be something remarkable going on within that dark structure.

So what are we looking at?

Extremely bright Ha target, with good Oiii elements, and even decent SII signal, bok globules, an extremely tight triple (or more) star at the core, the densest dust clouds this side of Andromeda, good position through most of the year, perfect size for the optimum resolution when imaging, and surrounded by a mass of gold and blue stars......

You're right, it IS boring, going back to NGC 7332!