Strange creatures around Chi Tau - 2 panels with RASA

[gorann]

Not sure if these strange creatures have any names or designations - I found them by surfing on Aladin Sky Atlas around M45. What I know is that the blue binary star in the centre is Chi Tau.

This is my first attempt of a two panel mosaic with the RASA8, so quite a wide field (two Andromeda galaxies would fit into the field of view). So these are very large but also very faint structures and I have here gone close to the limits of what this f/2 telescope (RASA 😎 combined with a very sensitive, low noise, 16 bit CMOS camera (ASI2600MC) can achieve at this integration time, which was totally 6.6 hours (2 - 4 min subs).  Caught over two recent nights (16-18 Oct).

I would welcome if anyone knew the names / numbers of these darkish nebulae!

EDIT: just realized that emojis are taking over. When I wanted to write RASA 8 i parenthesis the SGL-system turned it into a head with sunglasses.
 

Edited October 19, 2020 by gorann

[tomato]

Another cracking result. OSC may be the poor relation to mono + filters, but it’s getting richer with every shot you post.

[gorann]

2 minutes ago, tomato said:

Another cracking result. OSC may be the poor relation to mono + filters, but it’s getting richer with every shot you post.

Thanks Steve! I think that OSC, especially the new CMOS ones, are very close to mono cameras when you have a dark sky. With the RASA you cannot use a filter wheel and have to resort to a filter slider, That is fine for NB imaging when the moon is out and I have nothing else to do, but I am happy not to have to get my RGB images that way - I am sure it would involve more time and more trouble.

[ollypenrice]

Fabulous. I can't see a mono doing significantly better on this target.

Olly

[gorann]

25 minutes ago, ollypenrice said:

Fabulous. I can't see a mono doing significantly better on this target.

Olly

Thanks a lot Olly! Any idea if it (they) have a name or designation?

[ollypenrice]

16 minutes ago, gorann said:

Thanks a lot Olly! Any idea if it (they) have a name or designation?

Not a clue I'm afraid, but they should have!

Olly

[AKB]

45 minutes ago, ollypenrice said:

I can't see a mono doing significantly better on this target.

Wow!  Never thought I would see that ... !

It is a cracking image.

Tony

[Laurin Dave]

Cracking set of images from you lately Goran.. this is my favourite,  the bottom nebula reminds me of the "Balrog"  from Lord of the Rings...  

Dave

[gorann]

3 hours ago, AKB said:

Wow!  Never thought I would see that ... !

It is a cracking image.

Tony

Neither did I! Thanks a lot Tony!

[gorann]

2 hours ago, Laurin Dave said:

Cracking set of images from you lately Goran.. this is my favourite,  the bottom nebula reminds me of the "Balrog"  from Lord of the Rings...  

Dave

Thanks so much Dave! Yes, it is a very suggestive shape. I see some kind of flying creature with a trunk and big claws. Not sure about the top one.

[Andy R]

You keep producing these fantastic images Göran, Makes me want to part with some cash and buy a RASA. Looking at your kit list thou, is it your preferred imaging setup?

[gorann]

1 hour ago, Andy R said:

You keep producing these fantastic images Göran, Makes me want to part with some cash and buy a RASA. Looking at your kit list thou, is it your preferred imaging setup?

Thanks Andy! The short answer is that I have no preference, it all depends on the objects I aim for. I see it very much like having different lenses for your camera. So, I ended up over the last years to build (I love building) myself three obsies next to each other (I have no shortage of space here on the Swedeish country side). My first obsy now has a Mesu mount that currently holds two Esprit refractors for medium range AP (about 1000 mm FL), one collecting Lum or Ha and one RGB. Then I built a second obsy two years ago for a 14" Meade ACF on an EQ8 to go for smaller galaxies and planetary nebulae with 3.5 m FL, so that can only be used at nights with great seeing. And this summer I built one for a RASA at 400 mm FL. I love them all and they do different things for me, and what they can achieve have been a constant positive surprise. But if you should go for something relatively easy and not too expensive, it should defenitively be the RASA 8 on a NEQ6 class mount.

PS. I have so far never managed to run more than two of the three obsies in one night, since imaging is often too much about solving problems at night.....

[Graham Darke]

Cracking image Gorann. You have a number of Barnard Nebulae there (the dark brown features) and many others besides. The top half of your image shows B213, 216, 217 and 218. The lower part of your image is dominated by Barnard 215 and LDN1524. 

[newbie alert]

That's simply stunning Gorann, dark nebulae floats my boat..

 Simply superb

[Spongey]

9 hours ago, gorann said:

Any idea if it (they) have a name or designation?

Hi Gorann,

A great way to find the designation of objects in Aladin is to click on the Simbad database at the top of the view as shown here:

You can then draw a box around the region of interest and the software will list all the objects in the area. For example, highlighting the 'upper' dark nebulae of your image, as below, gives the following:

and

If you 'pin' the items of interest they will be highlighted in pink in the view.

Note that the number of items displayed in the view, and therefore listed when drawing a ROI box is largely dependent on the zoom level, i.e. you may not find the designation you're looking for unless you are 'zoomed in' enough. You can also adjust the 'density' slider when selecting the Simbad 'plane' on the right hand side to show more objects without zooming in, but this can get cluttered quickly. 

Apologies if this is a bit messy, I'm sure there are ways to hide certain objects from the view / list such as stars etc. but I'm not 100% sure on how to do that... You can shift click items in the list to remove them though.

Hope this helps

Sponge

Edited October 19, 2020 by Spongey

[gorann]

46 minutes ago, Graham Darke said:

Cracking image Gorann. You have a number of Barnard Nebulae there (the dark brown features) and many others besides. The top half of your image shows B213, 216, 217 and 218. The lower part of your image is dominated by Barnard 215 and LDN1524. 

Thank you so much Graham - really great to at least have numbers on the creatures!

[gorann]

38 minutes ago, newbie alert said:

That's simply stunning Gorann, dark nebulae floats my boat..

 Simply superb

Thanks! Mine too - I am getting addicted to the dark ones😎

[gorann]

17 minutes ago, Spongey said:

Hi Gorann,

A great way to find the designation of objects in Aladin is to click on the Simbad database at the top of the view as shown here:

You can then draw a box around the region of interest and the software will list all the objects in the area. For example, highlighting the 'upper' dark nebulae of your image, as below, gives the following:

and

If you 'pin' the items of interest they will be highlighted in pink in the view.

Note that the number of items displayed in the view, and therefore listed when drawing a ROI box is largely dependent on the zoom level, i.e. you may not find the designation you're looking for unless you are 'zoomed in' enough. You can also adjust the 'density' slider when selecting the Simbad 'plane' on the right hand side to show more objects without zooming in, but this can get cluttered quickly. 

Apologies if this is a bit messy, I'm sure there are ways to hide certain objects from the view / list such as stars etc. but I'm not 100% sure on how to do that... You can shift click items in the list to remove them though.

Hope this helps

Sponge

Thanks a lot Sponge! I figure it out and now I know where to start. It was in Aladin I found them (but very faint)

[Spongey]

1 minute ago, gorann said:

Thanks a lot Sponge! I figure it out and now I know where to start. It was in Aladin I found them (but very faint)

No problem

It's worth noting too that you can stretch the histogram of the DSS by clicking the 'pixel' button in the bottom right! This makes the faint stuff much easier to see, at the cost of blowing out some brighter objects.

Cheers,

Sponge

[gorann]

2 minutes ago, Spongey said:

No problem

It's worth noting too that you can stretch the histogram of the DSS by clicking the 'pixel' button in the bottom right! This makes the faint stuff much easier to see, at the cost of blowing out some brighter objects.

Cheers,

Sponge

Really useful - I have to start pushing buttons! I actually downloaded frame-grabs and used curves in PS to see better......