Dragons of Ara (NGC 6188)

[RichardL]

"Born from the light and matter of massive young stars, winged serpents take shape"

Possibly my favourite DSO, though the Rho Ophiuchi Cloud Complex comes a close second!

Dragons of Ara by Richard Leighton, on Flickr

Dragons of Ara by Richard Leighton, on Flickr

Dates: 2019/09 & 2020/09
Imaged via the remote imaging service iTelescope.net
Location: Siding Springs, Australia

Equipment:
Telescope: 0.1m f/5.0 Astrograph
OTA: Takahashi FSQ ED
Camera: FLO Microline 11002 CCD
Mount: Paramount PME
Focal length: 530mm

Details:
20x 600s SII
14x 600s Ha
13x 600s OIII
Total integration: 7 hours 50 minutes
Ha also used as luminance

Software:
PixInsight
Photoshop
Topaz DeNoise AI

Thanks,
Richard

[Carole]

Nice processing Richard.  One of the Nebulae we can't get from the UK.  I see you also captured the planetary nebula (I think) object lower down.

Oh to have these dark and clear skies. 

I love rho Orphiucci too, been trying to capture is for several years on various trips to Spain with portable kit - still not "there" as yet.

Carole 

[RichardL]

Thanks Carole, I've yet to experience truly dark skies, but looking forward to doing so in the not too distant future!

[Mac]

Nice Image,

I love rho Orphiucci too, been trying to capture is for several years on various trips to Spain with portable kit - still not "there" as yet.

I'll have to keep an eye out for this one.

Mac.

[NoelC]

Some pretty fantastic data there Richard!
Out of interest; whats the cost in credits for using a telescope like this?
I assume this is T8 at Siding Springs? i'd be interested in your experiences with itelescope and whether their 'masterclass' tutorials are good.

Good work!
Noel

[RichardL]

Hi Noel,

This was imaged via T12, located at Siding Springs - though this scope has now been decommissioned.
I subscribe to iTelescope for £29.99 per month, which credits me with 40 points.

Scopes are located in New Mexico, Siding Springs, Spain, and California, and cost between 66 and 216 points per hour of exposures (not imaging time). Thankfully, several times a year, they run triple point promotions - there's one on at the moment. I don't typically take this much data, but this was a special project of mine spanning two years.

They've a variety of scopes, including fast one-shot colour ones like T68 (f/2.3) - which I used to shoot Orion (10x 30seconds, and 10x 5 seconds).

They used to have a Facebook page which was great for inspiration, but they closed it in favour of their forum.

I've also used Chilescope, which is an on-demand rather than subscription based model, and reasonably priced. If you're feeling flush, you can schedule a 1 hour slot on their Richey Chretien for planetary, and lunar imaging ($150) - I treated myself last year during the Mars opposition, and was able to resolve the "lake of the sun", and Olympus Mons emerging from the northern clouds. I also had time to get in some Lunar  imaging of the Alpine Valley, and the Plato crater - its was so worth the money, and if you're familiar with Damian Peach's imagery, he's online during the session to help with any queries.

Finally, I've also used Telescope Live, which have recently changed their model, moving focus away from imaging, to sharing of data for processing. So fantastic for those who want access to data (including some sets of 30+ hours), but for me it doesn't give a sense of ownership, as you haven't spent time planning coordinates, field of view, filters, exposures, altitudes, transit times etc. Plus, if you do chose to use their scopes, they ride off the back of Chilescope, so its cheaper to go directly - Chilescope also offer some awesome moon discounts.

Any questions re scopes etc. let me know.

Thanks
Richard
 

[RobertM]

Richard,

That's a spectacular shot ! Makes me want to sell up, get devorced and take lessons in living upside down !

Robert

[MarkS]

Really nice!  I love the amount of detail you have there.  The processing is excellent.

Mark