Thor's Helmet

I know I promised more open clusters, but I recently took exposure data on NGC2359. Seeing was pretty good and I thought the data came out pretty good too. So I wanted to see what final processing would look like and then post since this is late season for this object.

I have attached a mid size image. A full size image and exposure / processing details are at:

http://jthommes.com/Astro/thorhelmet.htm

Scope was my C8 at f/4.8, Camera was my Art285. I usually expose on the short side time wise - in this case, exposure time was HA:L:R:G:B 56:24:16:16:16 - probably still somewhat short compared to what others are doing.

I'll get back to the Opens.

Attached Image:

Jim,

It did come out good! Nice overall color and detail!

Tom

Thats awesome Jim! I'm really impressed that you didnt spend much time getting data. Man, I'd have shot that object for 6 hours and still not gotten as good a result. So whats the secret with that chip youre using? 8O

Short time or not, Jim, that's an excellent rendition of Thor's Helmet.
The color and framing are particularly good.
Way to go, guy!

dan kowall

SWEET! 8)
Excellent shot my friend!

I had a FIRST time opportunity to view this object this past Winter Star Party, here at the Florida Keys, and it was awesome!

Thanks for sharing, and keep it up! 8)

Thanks to all of you for the kind comments.

Jim and Ivan,
I am impressed that you were able to observe this object visually. I was at a dark site when I got this data. While I was setting up and looking at the area visually, I really had to convince myself I was really seeing something.

Vincent Bert said:

Thats awesome Jim! I'm really impressed that you didnt spend much time getting data. Man, I'd have shot that object for 6 hours and still not gotten as good a result. So whats the secret with that chip youre using?

So, I did shoot at a fairly favorable focal ratio, but the Artemis camera concept is optimized for low noise. The trade off is more processing during the download - it takes about 14 sec for a full frame (1x1) download of only 1392x1040 pixels. Its OK with me, I'll wait, it just means I can stretch a little more before the noise becomes objectionable.

Beautiful image Jim! Nice processing on this one too.