Ha or O-iii friendly targets?

[Joel Shepherd]

We may be getting a night or two of relief from the almost non-stop rain we've had since September. I had my first successful attempt at autoguiding a couple weeks ago and now want to try a longer exposure with a filter to help tame the light pollution.

Are there any particularly good DSO targets that are near-overhead (e.g. around Triangulum, Andromeda, Cepheus or Cassiopeia) that would play well with an Ha or O-iii filter? My FOV is pretty small: the Western Veil is about the biggest thing I can fit whole into an exposure for point of reference.

Thanks for any suggestions! -- Joel.

[Davey-T]

California Nebula though may be a bit big, or M76 definately fit

Dave

[pipnina]

NGC 281 might be worth a try. Possibly the wizard? Maybe NGC 6888 or IC 5146?

Though, given the moon, I'd stick to Ha for now. Also most of those targets aren't in the right constellations but still have several hours a night atm.

[Uranium235]

For cass, its going to be NGC281, the heart and soul arent far away from there either. Cephus has a few nice bits too, IC1396 (though not much OIII) and NGC7380 (wizard) not far away. The cocoon is quite nice if you you do LRGB with Ha mixed in as there is quite a bit of dust hanging about there.

You wont find any Ha in Andromeda - apart from M31, and zilch in OIII.

Same with triangulum - the only NB target there are a few wisps in M33, no OIII.

You need to remember that nearly all of the narrowband targets are located within the MW, either side of that its just galaxies - where NB is of little use barring a few exceptions.

[ollypenrice]

Jellyfish nebula? IC444. Hugely three dimensional-looking.

Olly

[davedownsouth]

Are any of the Orion nebula / Horse head nebula / Rosette nebula any good in NB?

[Uranium235]

Are any of the Orion nebula / Horse head nebula / Rosette nebula any good in NB?

Yep.... just a bit

The M42 core will saturate your CCD in under 60s.

[Joel Shepherd]

Thanks for the leads! I'll do a bit of research and pick one or two. It's unfortunate that galaxies don't benefit from filters so much: I do like them as targets.

Thanks again -- Joel.

[pipnina]

Thanks for the leads! I'll do a bit of research and pick one or two. It's unfortunate that galaxies don't benefit from filters so much: I do like them as targets.

Thanks again -- Joel.

Ha can be a spectacular addition to a galaxy image especially M33 (with NGC604 inside it) It probably would look good in Ha even without the other channels, just the nebulae would be more pronounced.

[ollypenrice]

Hmmm, I see Ha as a bijou accessory to galaxies, nice but not essential and don't overdo it. M106 might be an exception. If you really are up for it there is a lot going on. We have R Jay GaBany to thank for this provocative bit of information!! http://images.google.fr/imgres?imgurl=http://fr.cdn.v5.futura-sciences.com/builds/images/thumbs/6/6031f8287a_jay2.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.futura-sciences.com/magazines/espace/infos/actu/d/astronomie-feu-artifice-coeur-m-106-galaxie-active-24370/&h=2000&w=1990&tbnid=0dyekL2MpmNVoM:&docid=j2YDxHo3YbOWJM&ei=OHFPVrGgOYHBUsaQiqAJ&tbm=isch&iact=rc&uact=3&page=1&start=0&ndsp=8&ved=0ahUKEwixnIyL25_JAhWBoBQKHUaIApQQrQMIITAA

Be aware that OIII is not moon-proof.

Olly

[Joel Shepherd]

For those anxiously keeping score at home ... Last night, by the time I got everything set up and lined up some high, discouraging-looking sheets of cloud were overhead. I panicked a bit and quickly found an easy target: M1 (Crab Nebula) and got a couple hours of it w/o any Ha. While nursing that along, I started to realize that the sky had moved much more than I'd thought in the last month and unfortunately the constellations I'd originally mentioned were -- by the time I was ready to roll -- too far west: right over the city, if not obscured by buildings.

So, tonight, I planned ahead a little better and the weather was more cooperative as well. As a result I have couple hours of Ha of IC 405, the Flame nebula, which I'm looking forward to processing this week. (I image entirely in mono currently).

Anyway, I'm pretty happy with that: it's the first time I've used an Ha filter extensively, the first time I've tried the Flame and just the third time guiding. It's exciting to see what kinds of doors guiding is opening.

Thanks for the suggestions: have them written down for earlier next fall. -- Joel.

[ollypenrice]

The Flame's a gorgeous Ha Target. The Tadpoles, just next door, are also tantalizing.

Olly

[Rodd]

Hello--My name is Rodd.  I am a true novice that has been imaging for all of 1 month, but am also interested in narrow band.  Check out this pic of M1 in Hubble Pallet.  I did the CA Nebula too-someone else said it might be good for narrow band--they are right!  Any advise on getting an Astrophysics mach1 to guide better with a Celestron 11" edge would be appreciated.  This pic has 4 hrs of exposure (12x 15min and 3 x20 min for all 3 filters).  Stars are ok but I would like to improve.  Compression ration for this JPG is 50--won't load otherwise--not sure if that changes teh pic.

Clear Skis--can't wait to do M1 in RGB!

[Rodd]

Just a comment about narrowbanding galaxies--M-51 DOES narrowband well--at least in Ha.

[BlueAstra]

Take a look through the Sharpless catalog here. It will give you a good idea of whether targets are NB or just Ha suitable. It also gives the size of the object. I did a spreadsheet once which compared all of the Sharpless targets with my scope FOV to identify those which fitted well.