Abell 6 Planetary Nebula

[Chris-A]

Hi,

This little planetary nebula is between Camelopardalis and Cassiopeia. I don't think it is often captured on it's own - it's occasionally seen in the corner of a widefield with HFG1, but my FOV has no chance of getting both together!

It's very faint and I wondered at first whether I was wasting my time, but the recent good skies allowed me to get >20hrs on it and bring out some detail, especially in the Ha.

Taken with a standard C9.25 SCT (reduced down to approx F6), on an EQ8. Atik 414 EX Mono. There were 16 x 30min OIII and 25 x 30min Ha subs, giving 20.5hrs in total.

 

[Chris-A]

I often struggle with how much noise reduction to apply to images (usually over-do it), so I'd be interested to hear if people prefer this version with a bit more NR - thanks...

 

[Wiu-Wiu]

Dedication! 

[assouptro]

Great capture! 

I may have a go at this one year, I think I prefer the first one. 

Thanks for sharing 

Bryan

[Chris-A]

9 hours ago, assouptro said:

Great capture! 

I may have a go at this one year, I think I prefer the first one. 

Thanks for sharing 

Bryan

Cheers.

I was quite surprised how few versions of this are about. It's in an area of the sky which means you can have a good 10 hour run on it in a single night at this time of year.

[geoflewis]

That's a sweet PN image Chris and not a target I've seen previously. I wonder how well it will show in LRGB or HaRGB, so maybe one for me to consider in future with the C14.

I also prefer V1.

Cheers, Geof

Edited December 6, 2019 by geoflewis

[Chris-A]

4 hours ago, geoflewis said:

That's a sweet PN image Chris and not a target I've seen previously. I wonder how well it will show in LRGB or HaRGB, so maybe one for me to consider in future with the C14.

I also prefer V1.

Cheers, Geof

Cheers Geof. There's actually an RGB version of it on David Ratledge's excellent imaging blog (scroll down to Feb 2nd) - I think it does show though that Ha is needed to bring out the detail.

http://www.deep-sky.co.uk/blogspot/2014archive/archive2014.htm

Would be interested to see what your extra FL/aperture could bring out - you probably have better skies in Norfolk than up here as well!

 

[geoflewis]

Hi Chris,

Thanks for the link to David's blog. I see his was LRGB, so I think that you're right, adding Ha might boost the signal somewhat. I'm not sure when I'll get around to it, but I'd like to give it a try.

Yes, my skies here in South Norfolk are pretty dark, being on the Bortle 3/4 boundary, with readings well into the 21s SQM when no Moon and of course no clouds are about. That is a rare combination at the best of times, but the past 2 months have been terrible. I live on the edge of a rural village with no immediate street lighting within half a mile and only a couple of small light domes from nearby small (~10k population) towns 4 miles away and a slightly larger one from Norwich, but that is 15 miles away and in a direction to the NE where I can't image anyway due to the neighbour's trees - they probably actually help by shielding the LP from that direction 😀.

Cheers, Geof

[Chris-A]

3 hours ago, geoflewis said:

Hi Chris,

Thanks for the link to David's blog. I see his was LRGB, so I think that you're right, adding Ha might boost the signal somewhat. I'm not sure when I'll get around to it, but I'd like to give it a try.

Yes, my skies here in South Norfolk are pretty dark, being on the Bortle 3/4 boundary, with readings well into the 21s SQM when no Moon and of course no clouds are about. That is a rare combination at the best of times, but the past 2 months have been terrible. I live on the edge of a rural village with no immediate street lighting within half a mile and only a couple of small light domes from nearby small (~10k population) towns 4 miles away and a slightly larger one from Norwich, but that is 15 miles away and in a direction to the NE where I can't image anyway due to the neighbour's trees - they probably actually help by shielding the LP from that direction 😀.

Cheers, Geof

That sounds excellent by UK standards - my skies are decent but, being 5 miles outside Preston, I only get >SQM20 on the odd, very good night 👍