Three Planetaries

[661-pete]

The output from my trip to France earlier this month, (last of the year. )

Two of these obviously very familiar, the third perhaps less well-known.

Firstly M27. This little beauty has been in the corner of my eye these past 3 or 4 years, but I've always passed it over, mainly because I'm more of a glob-lover and I thought my unmodded DSLR wouldn't bring much out of it. But - DSLR duly modded earlier this year, I thought I'd give it a shot - so: 19 x 3min at 800 ISO, 350D on Europa250. I'm pleased with the colours at least, exactly as they came out of the DSLR, no tweaking (well I did the usual stretching, DDP, stuff, but no saturation change). So the modded camera works well on Ha stuff.

Then NGC 7293 the Helix. 26 x 3min at 1600 ISO same setup. I was lucky to get this many subs in, even at my latitude advantage of 44°N it's still pretty low down but by timing my session just right, positioning the tripod just right, and judicious lopping of a few awkward bushes on the night :D, I was able to give myself over an hour's window of opportunity.

Finally, NGC 246 - The Skull Nebula. Quite an interesting little neb often overlooked, I would be pleased to see some work on this from others here! No brilliant Ha regions as in the others, but quite nice structure. It's in Cetus at decl. -12°, should be do-able at present for many people. 18 x 3 min at 1600 ISO.

[skye at night]

That helix is really nice...

You are starting to get the 'outer shell' features coming through as well.

Steve

[ncjunk]

Nice images, the helix is my favourite as well. For me for some reason M27 doesn´t quite look right (something to do with the background stars) but can´t put my finger on it...I am being very picky though (someones tired!)

Neil C

[JCJC]

All Great images.... The Skull Neb has some great detail coming through.

Jordan

[661-pete]

Nice images, the helix is my favourite as well. For me for some reason M27 doesn´t quite look right (something to do with the background stars) but can´t put my finger on it...I am being very picky though (someones tired!)

Neil C

No problem, Neil! Maybe there are too many background stars, and there's a bit of red dominating the field (often happens with a dense MW shot) - also the stars are not as well shaped as I'd like them to be what with my de-trailing methods (FocusMagic). But fair comment. Some time I'll have another look at it - unless someone else would like to tweak!

[johnh]

A great collection of planetaries and the Helix looks really grand. John.

[ollypenrice]

Particularly fine Helix, I thought. Soft, natural and unforced yet, by Gad, there's that outer 'arm.' well done.

Olly

[661-pete]

Olly, it's a toss-up whether that 'outer arm' is just gradient in the original, which I didn't quite take out! But nice of you to think it's the real thing! You're on exactly the same latitude as my place in France I think (but several hundred KM further east), so you'll know exactly how 7293 hangs for me, in the sky.

I just had a go at reducing the red channel only on the M27 starfield, leaving the nebula itself strictly alone. I think it looks a bit more natural now...

[blinky]

I really love the Helix Neb image, very soft and natural looking.

[MartinB]

The are all great, I love that helix, shame it is too low down for most of us in the UK

[saturn5]

Cracking set of images Pete,really love the Helix.

[Whippy]

Very nice Pete .

Tony..