Headphones Neb - PK 164.8+31.1 - 2nd (and Final) Go At this - Atik 16HR

[jcm]

I have finally obtained enough data to process this planetary nebula – got the OIII data on Sunday night – just before the storm.. I settled on subs of 12 mins ( had considered 15 mins) but because I knew the processing would have to pushed and I thought more subs might be better at averaging out the background noise. My first attempt at this nebula had a very noisy background.

H-alpha – 8 X 12 mins = 96 mins

OIII - 9 X 12 mins = 108 mins

Synthesised green channel.

130mm APO at F6 , Atik 16HR camera.

The mag of this object is about 14. So I think it must be somewhere near the limit of my telescope for imaging. Very few people have imaged this neb. so trying to find a comparison image was difficult. I did find one colour image on the web; this matched my colours, so hopefully the colours are not too exaggerated. The central blue star is supposed to be mag 17, I think I can just see it in the very centre, or is this wishful thinking?

If you wish to have a go at it the coordinates are :- RA 7h 57m 52s DEC 53d 25’ 12’’

With some scopes it might not be easy to get at as its directly overhead at the moment.

I think this shows what a great camera the Atik 16HR is , especially when its combined with good optics..

John

PS Added second image - tried to increase nebula detail and reduce noise. Not sure I succeeded.

[CELESCOPE]

Nice one John on a very difficult target, colour does look spot on as well , and nice image size, must have another go myself one day

Rog

[jgs001]

John, Nice one, I like that. The colours are really good on it.

[MikeP]

John,

Well done again. I've never heard of this one before. Time to hit the books again.

Forgive my ignorance, but how do you get the colour? The Atik is monochrome isn't it? You only give details for H? and OIII, I thought there would have to be some RGB as well.

Mike

PS I can see what looks like a star in the centre too. If it is mag 17, that's a wow too.

PPS POW for me so far.

[jcm]

Hi Mike,

Mapped the H-alpha to red.

Mapped the OIII to Blue

Synthesised a Green channel using Noels actions. Then levels , curves , colour balance etc.

John

[MikeP]

That makes sense. I think it might be time to send some money to Noel.

Thanks.

Mike

[Paxo]

John,

Excellent photograph of such a faint object, colours are fantastic with high levels of detail.

Steve..

[RobH]

Nice one John, you must be well pleased with this....a lot of hard work has gone into it and it shows

Cheers

Rob

[jcm]

I am pleased with how it worked out. After after 3hrs 24mins exp I was glad something appeared on the screen

John

[Sam]

Great work John! you must have a very good setup to get such a neat image of something so faint - combined with quite a bit of processing skill as well - very very nice!!

[centroid]

Great work John, on what would seem to be a very difficult object. As a Planetary Nebuala, I would guess your colour to be in the right 'ballpark'.

I put the co-ords into TheSky6, but it didn't show this object, so I've entered it as a 'user defined' object.

It should be comfortably within the capabilities of the 12", so given the chance, I might give it a go.

Dave

[jcm]

Hi Dave,

It does not seem to be in many of the common databases. I use Guide 8 ( Project Pluto ) you can find it on the screen but it is not in any of its catalogues.

John

PS - being vertically overhead means its a bit difficult to get a long run of subs without the camera bashing into the pier.

[MartinB]

Great work John.

The Sony ICX 285 chip in the Atik 16HR and SXV H9 is the best pixel for pixel chip around imo - the most sensitive non blooming chip around and very low noise. Just the job for a target like this

[Beyond_Vision]

Great shot John of an unusual object. I can see the central star clearly on my monitor.

Regards

Kevin

[jcm]

Thanks for all the positive comments. There are 3 stars , in a triangle , to the left of the bottom of the neb. Just above the central one there is a blue "smudge" - is this a faint galaxy? - nothing in that position on my charts.

On second thoughts its probably a "smudged" star.

John

[MikeP]

I looked on SkyMap Pro 11 and I did not see anything at those coordinates. I'll see if there are new files to download.

SkyMap shows two stars quite close - magnitudes 11.6 and 14.3. The nearest galaxy it shows is UGC 4085 / PGC 22186 / MCG 9-13-91 /

CGCG 262-50 / IRAS 07514+5327. It is magnitude 14.

MIke

[jcm]

Thanks for looking , Mike.

Its definitely a "smudge" on the DSS plate.

John

[saturn5]

A stunner John,good reward for your efforts.

[jcm]

Tried to increase the nebula detail and decrease the noise.

Added new image in the first post.

oops - slight problem - a bit better but not as much as I hoped.

John

[LostNSpace]

Thats a very nice image John

Mark

[steppenwolf]

I missed this first time around although I have commented in the POW thread. This is a great object and nicely captured here - I'd love to have a bash at it myself.

[legion48]

I missed it too. Great stuff John.