Abell 12

[Vesmaobs261]

Hello Group,
Checked out Abell 12 through the telescope with the naked eye
under average seeing conditions and ended up frustrated not
knowing if I was seeing the object or not due to it being so close
to the 4th magnitude star Mu Orionis.
To slay my frustration I decided to image the star in the hopes
that I would have the planetary nebula in the same field of view.
Using my new ASI224 camera and the same telescope (7 inch Mak.)
and 140x15 sec. exposures with a gain of 210 and a couple of darks
I watched in awe as Sharpcap stacked image after image to produce
the picture below. A little tweaking with the histogram really made
Abell 12 stand out. Sharpcap and the ASI camera truely work wonders.

[admin]

Hi,

nice image - it would be so easy to dismiss the planetary nebula there as just some reflection of light from the bright star inside the telescope, but you clearly found your target

cheers,

Robin

[Vesmaobs261]

Hi Robin,
Yes, that's what I thought it may have been
after the first few images came through, but
as the image became clearer (more stacks) all
my trepidation vanished, soon being replaced
by a smile of relief and satisfaction.
Thanks for the great software which makes it
so much easier to image faint objects such as
this.
George