Running Man Nebula


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By
Catalog
Obj Type
Location
Date Taken:
Mazlin
N/A - Unknown 1977
Nebula
CTIO, Chile
12-25-2010
Description

The data for this image was acquired during the testing of the Planewave mount, and at "only" 4.5 hours total, was not expected to produce a good image. In fact, the image is a little noisy in the dimmer areas, but what made this an exceptionally difficult image to process were 2 other issues -- first, the star brightness caused blooming from top to bottom; second, also due to star brightness there were several pronounced large and colorful halos. Blooming was handled by overlaying shorter exposure data on the bloomed areas (3 min exp as compared with 15 min); halos were painstakingly removed by hand in Photoshop (some residua may be evident). Also take note of dimmer colorful diffraction spikes adjacent to the main spikes on the brightest star (approx center and lower third) -- this may be due to wires running along the inner edge of the telescope tube?

Technical Details
Exposure Time:
RGB 1.5 hrs/channel
Camera:
Apogee U9
Telescope:
RCOS Carbon Truss 16 inch f/11.3 Ritchey-Chretien
Mount:
Planewave 200HR
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Used with permission, No reproduction of these images are permitted without written approval from Mazlin.