My first Astrobin anniversary: RCW38 [The Toad, the Moray Eel and the Seahorse] (Brian Boyle)

My first Astrobin anniversary: RCW38 [The Toad, the Moray Eel and the Seahorse]

I posted my first astrophotograph to Astrobin 1 year ago today. I wanted to mark the anniversary, by posting a new image and saying thanks to all the Astrobinners for their support, encouragement and valuable advice. Particular thanks to Michael, Matthew, David R., David W., Tim, Eddy, Jian and Christoph for really valuable, kind and insightful comments.

My first image was a rather "muddy" shot of the the LMC taken with my Canon 6D and a 105mm stock lens. For the anniversary, I decided to try something quite different. Up until now, I have rather focused on the well-known targets. So I decided to make a bit of a change, an attempt something for which there are only a handful of images on Astrobin and in only one image in narrowband SHO.

To me this is rather surprising, since the target ( RCW38 ) is - I think - rather interesting

It is tucked away in the SouthEast corner of the Vela SNR, and like many of the other RCW objects, it receives rather scant attention [Props to Claudio, who is also trying to promote some of these lesser known RCW objects] Perhaps its because it doesn't have a catchy title like another famous RCW objects "The Statute of Liberty" or "Running Chicken" nebula.

Despite the only previous image being a 3hr Chilescope image, I ventured forth last night with my trusty Esprit 100 and managed almost 6hours before the cloud rolled in. While it deserves (and will get) more integration, I thought I would post it today just to mark the anniversary. Surprisingly, it shows many of the features in the ChileScope image, including the "patchwork" nature of the nebula, even if it not quite as colourful as the image with the bigger 'scope.

If it needs a name, to me it looks a little like an aquatic menagerie of (top to bottom) the head of a Toad, Moray Eel and Seahorse.

Enjoy and thanks!

Ha 600 x 12

[OIII] 600 x 12

[SII] 600 x 9

Original
B
C
Final
D

B

Description: Added another 4 x 600 [SII] subs, ran Deconvolution on the Master HSO files and put a little more contrast and a little less saturation.

Uploaded: ...

C

Description: A little more colour

Uploaded: ...

D

Description: Re-work of old data using RC Astro tools

Uploaded: ...

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Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	7137292
PixInsight job	S0WV38FGXFSH6ECI6C5Y9QZ8IR01AY2K
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	08h58m48s.86
RA (top/left)	09h02m34s.32
RA (top/right)	08h55m05s.35
RA (bottom/right)	08h54m55s.29
RA (bottom/left)	09h02m40s.20

Dec (center)	-47°28′38″.3
Dec (top/left)	-46°35′39″.10
Dec (top/right)	-46°35′24″.0
Dec (bottom/right)	-48°21′13″.1
Dec (bottom/left)	-48°21′28″.0

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