Cygnus X-1

[Rodd]

Not a complete image yet--just Ha.  Posted to spark the imagination and kindle a sense of mystery.  I did not know that one of the most iconic objects in all of astronomy was near the Tulip Nebula.  My formative years were filled with the mystery and wonder of Cygnus X-1: back when it was still a big question mark--way before images like this were possible with amateur equipment.  I found a wonderful image of this region (bi color in Ha and OIII with RGB stars) that really showed the shock front, which was primarily OIII signal.  I was surprised to see vestiges of it in Ha.  

Conditions were appalling--and I was lucky to get 40 5min subs over 3 nights of imaging in a 2 week period (I lost at least that many to clouds).  The FWHM is twice as high as I like.  But I could not resist annotating the image to show the points of interest.  For some reason PI would not let me add color to the text--which leave the line pointing to the object of interest quite faint.

TOA 130 and ASI 1600 with 3um Astrodon filter.  Obviously allot more (and better) data will be added to this project.  Not sure yet what the final composition will be.  For some objects I really do not like the Hubbell Palette, and this is one of them.  In the end I may not keep very many of these subs--maybe none.  But they left me inspired!  

[MarsG76]

Nice result, 40 x 5 min subs over 3 nights is dedication.

 

[Rodd]

11 minutes ago, MarsG76 said:

Nice result, 40 x 5 min subs over 3 nights is dedication.

 

Thanks--I shouldn't have been imaging at all.  But I can't help myself.  I am kind of amazed at how Ha can yield passable results during bad conditions--unlike LRGB for sure.  It will be interesting to compare subs from a truly good night with these

Rodd

[MarsG76]

3 minutes ago, Rodd said:

Thanks--I shouldn't have been imaging at all.  But I can't help myself.  I am kind of amazed at how Ha can yield passable results during bad conditions--unlike LRGB for sure.  It will be interesting to compare subs from a truly good night with these

Rodd

I totally get you... there was a number of times where I had a very short turn around between shifts but with the clear sky I couldn't help myself and found my self outside... the next day at work was, well, extra tiring, that's unless I was too unwell to attend ;-)

 

[Rodd]

7 minutes ago, MarsG76 said:

I totally get you... there was a number of times where I had a very short turn around between shifts but with the clear sky I couldn't help myself and found my self outside... the next day at work was, well, extra tiring, that's unless I was too unwell to attend ;-)

 

I guess that is the benefit of remote systems--even if they are only 100 feet away.  Maybe some day!

Rodd

[MarsG76]

2 minutes ago, Rodd said:

I guess that is the benefit of remote systems--even if they are only 100 feet away.  Maybe some day!

Rodd

My "remote" system still needs the human touch....

[Dragon_Astro]

Ha yes, the astro-hangover.....been there lol

Also "astro-zombie" after a run of nights imaging, and you don't actually mind a night when it's cloudy.

[Rodd]

17 minutes ago, Dragon_Astro said:

Ha yes, the astro-hangover.....been there lol

Also "astro-zombie" after a run of nights imaging, and you don't actually mind a night when it's cloudy.

Pretty rare these days....unfortunately

Rodd

[wimvb]

10 hours ago, Rodd said:

For some reason PI would not let me add color to the text

Nice image. The reason for the b/w text is that the image is gray scale. You have to either do an rgb combine with the same image in all three channels, or a colourspace conversion, to make it rgb.

[Rodd]

5 hours ago, wimvb said:

Nice image. The reason for the b/w text is that the image is gray scale. You have to either do an rgb combine with the same image in all three channels, or a colourspace conversion, to make it rgb.

Thanks Wim.  I thought that might be the reason.