Astrophotography

Bok Globules - Running Chicken Nebula IC 2944

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Daniel Stern

3/15/2023 10:58 AM

Attached is an image of the Running Chicken Nebula taken recently. It’s in the HOO palette. It contains Bok globules, the small dark spots in the middle of the picture, something I never heard of and thought it might be of interest. From Wikipedia - Bok globules are isolated and relatively small dark nebulae, containing dense cosmic dust and gas from which star formation may take place. Bok globules are found within H II regions, and typically have a mass of about 2^[1] to 50 solar masses contained within a region about a light year or so across (about 4.5×10⁴⁷ m³).^[2] They contain molecular hydrogen (H₂), carbon oxides and helium, and around 1% (by mass) silicate dust. Bok globules most commonly result in the formation of double- or multiple-star systems.^[3]

Dan

Gary Trapuzzano

3/15/2023 11:45 AM

Thanks for posting this amazing image on the forum Dan. It's great to be able to view it in more detail (compared to what the DVAA email group postings provide).

What are the acquisition and imaging details for it (i.e. - OTA, camera, filters, integration time, site info, etc.)?

Thanks and clear skies,

Gary

Daniel Stern

3/15/2023 3:07 PM

Thanks Gary. This was taken in Rio Hurtado Valley, Chile. The details are:
Takahashi TOA-130 NFB
ZWO ASI6200MM
3nm Ha S2 O3
Mount - Planewave L-500
No guider
15.9 hours integration over three days in early March
Ha 86 x 300
O3 80 x 300
S2 25 x 300
Capture: NINA
Processing - Pixinsight

The site in Chile is amazing. Over 300 clear days a year, stable temperatures, low humidity, elevation 1705 meters, sub arc-sec seeing, SQM varies between 21 and 22.13. It makes even a hack like me look good. I'm happy to share data with anybody who wants to sharpen their processing skills. It would interesting to compare techniques and learn something new.

Dan

Gary Trapuzzano

3/17/2023 4:15 PM

Hi Dan,

No hurry, but I think I would be interested in playing around with your data at some point.

Maybe post the calibrated and integrated PixInsight "masterLight_xxxx_autocrop.xisf" files someplace that can handle the size. For example, the "Documents" section of the DVAA website can handle individual files up to 300MB each. As a test I tried zipping one of my ASI2600MC masterLight files and it went from 405MB to around 237MB, which would work. I don't know how big the ASI6200MM masterLight files are, but that folder might be an option. A shared Google Drive folder or similar might be an option too.

Thanks,

Gary

Daniel Stern

3/17/2023 11:58 PM

Hi Gary,
I uploaded the master lights to the DVAA Document Library - Astrophotography folder. I also included my image. I look forward to seeing your version. (please forgive my typo "O2" should be "O3". If it is user editable I couldn't figure it out). I'm hoping to get some more data to bring the star color out, maybe an hour each of RGB. I'll post that too when available.

Dan

Gary Trapuzzano

3/18/2023 11:23 AM

Hi Dan,

Thank you for uploading your data. I was able to download the data and will try working with it as time permits. I haven't worked with monochrome data so there will be a bit of a learning curve. BTW - I have limited admin privileges for the website and was able to change the description of the oxygen file from O2 to O3.

Out of curiosity, I searched the web for astronomy sites in Rio Hurtado Valley and found the El Sauce Observatory and the Deep Sky Chile sties. Are you acquiring the data remotely from one of those sites in Chile or have you ben down there in person?

Great job again on this image and thanks for sharing it, and the data, with the club.

Take care,

Gary

Daniel Stern

3/18/2023 3:47 PM

Hi Gary,
I have a few scopes at Deep Sky Chile (the next mountain over from El Sauce - about 6 miles away). I typically collect data from dusk till dawn, automated through NINA. It's amazing and a lot of fun. If you ever want to do a zoom and take a look at the southern sky let me know. Just finished the attached. Do you like the one with stars or no stars? The stars kind of obscure the detail of the nebula. It's the Banana Nebula, NGC 3199. It is an emission nebula about 12,000 light years away in the constellation Carina. The nebula is the result of a Wolf-Rayet star WR 18. The bow shock pictured here was thought to be the result of WR-18 plowing through the interstellar gas and dust. However, it is now believed to be due to the non-uniform structure of the nebula with denser gas near the bow shock than the other parts of the nebula.

Details of pic:
Planewave CDK-17 / L-500 Mount
Moravian C4-16000 camera
Chroma 3nm filters
RGB - 10 x 300 sec each (for star color)
S2 55 x 300
O3 127 x 300
Ha 145 x 300
Total integration time ~30 hours
Remote capture: Rio Hurtado, Chile

Dan

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