WARNING: The image you see below is a COMPLETE PLACEHOLDER! As the title implies – this is the bad and ugly version of the Dolphin Head Nebula. The primary objective of the front-patio imaging session was to confirm my framing for future imaging of the object in dark skies (specifically Southern Hemisphere dark skies) – which was a success (i.e., the nebulosity IS in the center of the frame). After I finished processing it, I’d originally planned to quietly add the hack job (er, I mean…completed image) and my notes to my journal and step away. But, then I decided – sometimes you have to admit, own, and share your failures!
Framing experiment placeholder…
We cancelled our Thanksgiving trip to Cincinnati because of Zeus – he had been bitten by a horsefly who, apparently, had deposited a worm into his paw. On Monday afternoon he started limping, by Monday night he could barely walk, and when I got up early on Tuesday morning to take him for a trail walk before leaving for DEN, we discovered the bloody paw – and we would not walk more than a few feet before sitting or laying down. After cancelling the Cincinnati trip, we briefly thought about driving to Albuquerque on Friday-Saturday. But then rethought that, and decided that since it was still a holiday weekend, it would be better to just stay home. I suggested a dark skies trip, since both Comanche and Kiowa National Grasslands had clear skies forecast – that idea was vetoed – we weren’t ready and it was still a holiday weekend, it would be better to stay home. So, I decided to set up Big Bertha and capture some data from the front patio, so as not to completely forego the clear nights of and surrounding the New Moon.
I started the night with CTB1 Garlic Nebula, while I waited for SH2-308 Dolphin Head Nebula to rise at about midnight. Collection on the Dolphin Head Nebula was rough because it is so low on the horizon – only visible for about four hours when it rises above 20°, only reaching a maximum of 30°. So the autoguider struggled with very poor performance so close to the equator. Also, even though I had auto meridian flip turned off – when I came out to do the meridian flip, it was already on the east side of the mount, but the sequence had failed to restart (likely because of the autoguider not reinitializing).
The primary objective of this imaging session, as with CTB1 Garlic Nebula’s a couple of weeks ago was to verify the framing of the object. I plan to image Dolphin Head Nebula during my trip to the Southern Hemisphere in March 2025 and the nebulosity is very faint in the SGP Framing & Mosaic Wizard image, so I wanted to make sure I had the framing correct before I spent a night of precious Southern Hemisphere dark skies on it.
I spent quite a bit of time processing the very noisy data set. Stacking in APP with Adaptive Airy Disc didn’t show much nebulosity, until the image was stretched by 30% – and then the noise is terrible! I re-stacked in APP with HaOIII Color, thinking that might be better, but it looked pretty much the same. I went through to fruition with the LR/PS processing – producing a hack-job image through creative tool application, masking, and blending. When I finished, I’d originally planned to quietly add the completed image and my notes to my journal and step away. But, then I decided – sometimes you have to admit, own, and share your failures!
So, here it is – a complete placeholder – the bad and the ugly SH2-308 Dolphin Head Nebula, with hopefully the good to come from imaging sessions in the Southern Hemisphere where it won’t be so close to the horizon (and I’ll be in dark skies).
The good news is that the “framing” experiment was successful in showing that the Dolphin Head Nebula is centered in the frame, which really was my primary objective of imaging this very low on the horizon object from the Bortle 6 front patio!
The “rest of the story” including target fun-facts and specifics about the data collection is in the gallery at: https://beersastrophotography.com/gallery/sh2-308-dolphin-head-nebula/