Cone Nebula, IC447 and Strottner-Drechsler 155

[gorann]

A few days ago @ollypenrice posted a very nice and dusty RASA image of the Cone nebula and Dreyer's nebula (IC447), and about the same time Marcel Drechsler and Xavier Strottner  posted their latest discovery on Astrobin: Strottner-Drechsler 155 (https://www.astrobin.com/vy1kma/). I realized that all three objects would fit into the field of view of my RASAs so when the sky cleared and the moon was rather low last night I thought I would check if my dual-RASA8 rig could detect it S-D 155 and include the Cone and Dreyer's. My SQM is usually above 21 but snow on the ground lightened up the sky so the meter showed 20.5. The object was also very low so I could only collect 2 x 2.25 hours before it fell below the horizon.

S-D 155 is the blue object near the lower right corner. With only 4.5 hours and a focal length of 400 mm it is of course not as outstanding in detail as it is in the 80 hours 1200 mm image of Drechsler and Strottner, but there it is, and I think it is nice to see it in a wider context.

Caught with RASA8 and ASI2600MC and IDAS NBZ filter. 54 x 5 min. Processed in PI and PS, including all the new XTerminators.

 

Edited March 13 by gorann

[wimvb]

80 hrs @ f/8 vs 5 hrs at f/2. "F-myth"? 😉

Joking aside, this is an excellent image. Well done, Göran.

Edited March 13 by wimvb

[gorann]

Thanks Wim! What I know is that my Samyang 135 f/2 would not have pulled this off, so at least "aperture rules" is not a myth😉

[wimvb]

7 minutes ago, gorann said:

so at least "aperture rules" is not a myth😉

Definitely not (a myth, that is).

Edited March 13 by wimvb

[ollypenrice]

Good going! I don't have an operational rig capable of going for this, at the moment, which is rather a shame since adding S-D155 would be a nice touch. I'll have to speak sweetly to one of my robotic clients to suggest a collaboration!  

Olly

[gorann]

3 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

Good going! I don't have an operational rig capable of going for this, at the moment, which is rather a shame since adding S-D155 would be a nice touch. I'll have to speak sweetly to one of my robotic clients to suggest a collaboration!  

Olly

Thanks Olly! Is the RASA rig broke?

[ollypenrice]

53 minutes ago, gorann said:

Thanks Olly! Is the RASA rig broke?

No, it's fine but it's an OSC camera and we don't have a dual band filter for it. I'm not keen on the idea of having an on-off-on-off filter arrangement for it. A second RASA rig would be a different matter.

Olly

[old_eyes]

This part of the sky definitely having a moment. Lovely image, and a nice capture of what must be a very difficult target. I have RASA envy!

[gorann]

11 minutes ago, old_eyes said:

This part of the sky definitely having a moment. Lovely image, and a nice capture of what must be a very difficult target. I have RASA envy!

Thanks a lot! Yes, quite a mix of bright and very faint targets, so a fun challenge to process.