NGC 40 (Caldwell 2)....F16 DSO imaging :-)

[RobH]

Hello all.

Even though I love my TMB, I do miss having a long focal length scope for the really small targets, objects like this lovely planetary nebula, so, taking a lead from the lunar and planetary guys, I put a 2x Televue barlow onto my setup, giving a focal ratio of F16, and this is the result.

4 minute subs were about the longest I could go without too much blurring at 2400mm focal length as the seeing was very unsteady. At that focal ratio, my 6 inch scope is very slow, so what I caught was pretty faint and I didn’t catch any of the fainter nebulosity, so I may well revisit this object with a larger scope at a later date.

It is about 1 light year across, and lies 3500 light years away from us, in the constellation of Cepheus.

It was discovered by Sir William Herschel in 1788.

Full sized image here…..

pic and description page

Imaged with a TMB152 @ F16, Atik 16HR.

All subs 4 minutes.

Ha luminance layer used.

Ha x 10

R x 11

G x 11

B x 17

Total imaging time. 3 hrs 16 minutes

Imaged on the 30th August 2010.

Cheers

Rob

[adamsp123]

The effort was well worth while Rob, nice to see a good image of such a small object.

[anthony]

Quite a challenge at that focal length. Nice result!

[rich_t]

Nice tight stars especially at that focal length, good clean result with nice colour. Just as I get my widefield setup running, you post this and make we want to switch back to my sct!

Cheers,

Rich.

[Doc]

Lovely colour in this elusive litte planetary Rob.

[Coco]

Fantastic result Rob, a target few will try image no doubt!

cheers

Guy

[johnh]

Waiting to see a longer Fl with the TMB and it looks excellent with marvellous star colour, Ha really works with this one. Few image this so great to see it here.

John.

[RobH]

Thanks all.

John, I'd been meaning to try some long FL work with the scope since I first got it, but my only other attempt was with the irregular galaxy NGC 3718, and although the scale was good, F16 was much too slow, but I reasoned that a PN like this would be compact and bright enough not to need excessively long subs. I also shot some OIII and SII, but at 4 minutes there was not enough signal to bother using them.

Cheers

Rob

[p1taylor]

Fabulous image Rob, sowes wat you can do at long FL.

peter

[RobH]

Have a bash at it with your RCX Peter. The FL is perfect and you can grab a lot more light than me

Cheers

Rob

[ollypenrice]

Great idea, Rob. This would never have occurred to me but it has now! I can see some experiments with the TEC coming on... Even if the system isn't perfect it is nice to get to those little fellas and they are often quite bright.

Lovely colour in your image.

Olly

[Keiran]

Brilliant job there rob, and thanks for the info on it too very interesting.... you've got a real cracker there.

Ive never seen this on and i dont expect to very soon either...

[gary1968]

Never seen this one before Rob, what a job you have done on it, a labour of love at that FL, thanks for sharing.

Gary

[cardconvict]

well that looks awesome might have a blast at this one myself has this image been cropped

[RobH]

might have a blast at this one myself has this image been cropped

Go for it. The 9.25 will do a good job.

Try and push the exposure time up a bit if you can, and maybe throw in some Ha binned 2x2 to see if you can catch any of the outer streamer, which comes from the top left corner.

There's just been a little cropping at the edges where the frames didn't quite match, but apart from that, nothing, and the image hasn't been resized.

Cheers

Rob

[cardconvict]

are you able to do 2 x 2 binning with a canon 450d as that is the only camera i have.