Astro shot - The Pacman nebula

swag72

swag72

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Sara
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Hope you're enjoying the astro shots I'm posting - Something a little different. Known as NGC281 this nebula is commonly called the Pacman nebula. It is approx 10,000 light years from Earth.

I am really annoyed with the framing on this one - Things all went wrong half way through the data capture and there was nothing else I could do.

This is a total of 18.5 hours of subs. Each individual exposure being 30 minutes in length. Taken with a cooled astro camera.


NGC281 in Narrowband by swag72, on Flickr
 
just stunning. im happy i got a clear shot of the moon last night, let along a nebula 10,000 light years away. these pics just blow me away. Brilliant capture, im sad its not what you wanted but its pretty stunning from this end :)
 
Thanks both Robs!!

In order to track for so long and so accurately I have a seperate scope and camera that is used soley for guiding and keeping the guide star in the same place.
 
Amazing again Sara.

I can see why you weren't 100% happy with the framing, but honestly it really doesn't take anything at all away from the shot for me. The colours are absolutely beautiful and it's another stunner as far as I'm concerned.

I am struggling to see where they got the Pacman connection though :thinking: :LOL:
 
Thanks Sarah - Regarding the Pacman connection, I *think* if you were to rotate by maybe 45 degrees or so in a clockwise direction that would be it. By the dark bit of the nebula, that's the mouth. To be honest there's loads of nebula's with 'common' names, I rarely see why!!!!
 
Hi Sara,just to echo everyone else,looked at this and the propeller and bubble nebula/nebulae ?? ..wow ..that is some kind of skill you have there..thanks for posting these, the distances are mind blowing but so are your shots.And I thought daylight fill flash is difficult to calculate manually, what about these for a challenge !!! Much Congrats.
 
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Thanks very much for your comments Allan and Obi! The skill is by far in the processing. Capturing the data itself is the easy part!! One image will easily take 6-8 hours to process.
 
Thanks Michael - I put a couple of images in my gallery to show the setup. These images are taken with an astro cooled CCD camera (1.4mp!!), an HEQ5 mount and a Pentax 75SDHF telescope. The telescope is a 500mm scope, but the fov is so much smaller due to the chip on the camera, it's about 1396x1191!



 
Yes I used a 1000D for a while, but the noise levels out here in Spain on the long exposures was what pushed me towards a cooled CCD. DSLR images though are very good - I look forward to seeing your images (y)
 
I have an HEQ5 pro synscan - Now I no longer use the handset and have it all connected to the PC and use a fantastic programme (free download) called EQMOD for running the mount and guiding.
 
Excellent shot, would love to be able to have a go. By the way, the pacman is in the lower right of the nebula (with mouth open..)
 
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