In my view, Puppis is a somewhat underrated part of the sky. Overshadowed by its more showy neighbours and former members of the Argo Navis constellation, there are a few treasures here. One of those treasures is Cometary Globule 4 and the small galaxy it is menacingly juxtaposed against.
Looking alarmingly like the Doomsday Machine from the eponymous Star Trek episode (which I remembered seeing the first time around), it has been on my target list since I started in this hobby
Frustrated by bad weather in 2020 and 2021, I finally managed to get some L-frames a couple of nights ago on the first good night in over a month. Unfortunately the next night was badly affected by cloud, and I only managed to salvage 50% usable subframes from the RGB observations. With the cloud closing in until full moon, I decided to process what I had, inspired by
@Michael Feigenbaum very impressive images achieved using a 6:1 L:Broadband ratio.
I have included one relatively close crop (but also shows both the data and processing inadequacies), and one wider field. Normally I go for the wide field, but I think in this case the close crop frames the target much better.
Grateful for your feedback on this attempt.
L: 71 x 180s
R: 18 x 300s
G: 7 x 300s
B: 7 x 300s
"
Gentlemen, I suggest you beam me aboard."
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