NGC 6543, The Cat's Eye Nebula.

[RobH]

Hello all,

I took 114 RGB subs of this tiny planetary nebula with a combination of 1 minute and 2 minute subs at F10 with my 14 inch scope.

Eventually, I ended up using just the 9 best of them.

Ha data was taken as a test after I'd tweaked my collimation using the Hartmann mask method described in Practical Astronomer a couple of months ago.

I ended up just going about 1/10th of a turn on one of my collimation screws but it's made quite a difference

It was really windy when I was doing the Ha subs and out of around 40, I ended up using 15.

I hope to go back and get some more narrowband data for this, and go for some longer Ha subs to try to capture the very faint outer envelope.

RGB was taken with an Atik 16HRC, Ha data with an Atik 16HR and Astronomik 13nm Ha filter.

Ha was used as a luminance layer at 50% opacity, and also used as a luminance layer on the red channel at 30% opacity.

This object is really small...at F10 with this scope I'd have to do a mosaic to get the Dumbell nebula in!!

First image is reduced in size for the web, second is full size.

Cheers

Rob

[Sam]

Rob, that is a very stunning image of a difficult subject. There is quite abit of detail showing through - very nice!

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

Rob, the halo is super faint but shows up better with the OIII filter than with the Ha. I messed with it last year http://stargazerslounge.com/index.php/topic,17845.0.html

You caught some fantastic detail, as you say its not very big!

Must get round to having another go at it.

Kaptain Klevtsov

[steppenwolf]

Excellent image of a VERY difficult object - methinks I would struggle with my ED80 on this one!!

[SteelRat]

That's a pretty stunning result really :shock:

Cheers

Matthew(SR)

[jgs001]

cracking image Rob

[algol]

very nice that is, been trying to find that myself recently but having a bit of trouble spotting it in draco

[Martin 2]

Thats lovely mate, some nice detail in there

Martin

[Beyond_Vision]

Theres no hope for the rest of us if that how big it is in your monster SCT. Nice capture Rog

Regards

Kevin

[blinky]

very very nice!

[dogfish]

Hi Rob

Fantastic image, probably the best amateur one I've seen. Absolutely one of my favourite visual objects which, although small, is very bright so you can really up the magnification on it and see some detail. Thanks for posting it.

Cheers, Martin

[lunator]

Hi Rob

That is an excellent image of a very difficult target

Cheers

Ian

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

Found this, which is a bit closer in than Rob's, and slightly more detailed.

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap080322.html

Kaptain Klevtsov

[RobH]

Hmmm, where do I get one of those scopes

Thanks for the heads up re. the OIII KK, if the skies clear I'll try for the outer ring...your shot of it is excellent

Cheers

Rob

[Keagle]

Beautiful subject - fantastic shot. This is one that is becoming a favourite of mine it seems!

[CELESCOPE]

lovely image Rob on a very difficult target, you certainly pulled some data out of that one

Rog

[MikeD]

Stunning result on what is a very small target :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock:

Hats off to you mate.