NGC 6888, sort of

[Rodd]

Normally when I post in the beginning stages of projects I do so in frustration--noise, or speckles, or ....what ever it may be.  To balance out the scales I decided to post this image of the Crescent Nebula taken with the TOA 130 and ASI 1600 with a 3nm Astrodon filter.  It only has 3  5min subs taken during an extraordinarily poor evening.    I bailed out on collecting Ha for NGC4725 becuase there was so much high cloud haze that it became a waste of time--when the Moon rose, you could see that it simply was not a clear night.  Despite perfect focus and steady guiding I could not bet FWHM values much better than 3.0.  But before I packed it in, I wanted to see what the scale of the image would be for NGC 6888--as it would be in prime imaging position over the next month or 2.  Galaxy season is fast waning and I need to decide if I will stay at 1,000mm, reduce it to 700mm or go back to wide field.  I was not expecting much at all.  I have resisted posting but it keeps coming back and finally i gave in.  Considering the conditions and serious lack of data--I rather like this image.  It has been software binned 2x2 to help with the noise and signal, but the scale is still decent.  I wanted to see if I could get the soap bubble in the same FOV at this scale--but alas--it is just off the left hand edge.  I could push the Crescent over to the right--but the composition would suffer IMO.

The image has minimal processing- calibration, crop, ABE and a stretch.  I am looking forward to completing this.  I guess the moral of the story is "even a bad night can be rewarding.  

Rodd

 

[wimvb]

Very nice result for such a short exposure time, Rodd. Regarding the Bubble and framing. It can come out very well in Oiii, so your composition with each in its own corner could work a lot better then you'd expect.

[Rodd]

2 hours ago, wimvb said:

Very nice result for such a short exposure time, Rodd. Regarding the Bubble and framing. It can come out very well in Oiii, so your composition with each in its own corner could work a lot better then you'd expect.

That's pobably true....but I really like this framing.  I guess the reducer would be perfect.

Rodd