Helix faintest details (a couple dozen photons/hr) 72 hrs

[alpal]

Originally Posted by Andy01

+1 Above - You MUST submit this to APOD, it's groundbreaking scientifically & aesthetically pleasing too - Benchmark image, deserving of all acclaim!

It's the deepest Ha picture ever taken as far as I can see.

[Placidus (Mike and Trish)]

Originally Posted by gregbradley

Fantastic work. Its always great to see new images that take the view further and further and break new ground.

A tremendous effort.

Greg.

Thanks muchly, Greg.

Originally Posted by alpal

Hi Mike and Trish,
great work - new territory!
I hope you'll present it for an APOD?

cheers
Allan

Originally Posted by Andy01

+1 Above - You MUST submit this to APOD, it's groundbreaking scientifically & aesthetically pleasing too - Benchmark image, deserving of all acclaim!

Originally Posted by alpal

It's the deepest Ha picture ever taken as far as I can see.

Thanks so much, Allan and Andy. Spurred on by your encouragement, we've just submitted it. It would definitely give today's APOD (a flow chart on how to identify heavenly objects, in which, if an astronaut is waving back at you, it is the ISS) a run for its money.

[rustigsmed (Russell)]

Beautiful work as usual m and t nice to be breaking into new ground!!

[Lognic04 (Logan)]

HOLY MOLY! Amazing picture!!!!!!

[Ryderscope (Rodney)]

Sheesh! Mind blowing detail. Presents the object in an entirely different light (no pun intended).

[Jen]

[E_ri_k (Erik)]

Far out, that's dedication! Looking good

Erik

[SimmoW (SIMON)]

Sorry for the late mind explosion, we are away on a short holiday! Wot everyone else said +1 googolplexian!

[Placidus (Mike and Trish)]

Originally Posted by rustigsmed

Beautiful work as usual m and t nice to be breaking into new ground!!

Originally Posted by Lognic04

HOLY MOLY! Amazing picture!!!!!!

Originally Posted by Ryderscope

Sheesh! Mind blowing detail. Presents the object in an entirely different light (no pun intended).

Originally Posted by Jen

Originally Posted by E_ri_k

Far out, that's dedication! Looking good

Erik

Thanks so much folks, your support counts. Much appreciated.

It's taken three attempts over several years to get here.

One thing: you can take a pretty good H-alpha Tarantula if the full moon is far enough away, but something like the current image is most easily done from a pretty dark site and totally clear sky within say 5 days of the new moon. Otherwise, random noise and gradients make it very difficult.

Another is that at our image scale (0.55 sec arc per pixel) and a 16803 chip at -30C, 2x2 binning is pretty much essential. In past years with unbinned data we saw nothing much. Perhaps a very low noise CMOS sensor would help.

Very best,
Mike and Trish

[Lognic04 (Logan)]

Hi M&T,
How would you recommend a CCD (with say, a kaf8300 chip) compared to
something like the ASI1600? The only reason i'd consider getting a CCD would be to bin, is binning worth having a noisier chip?

[cometcatcher (Kevin)]

Deep. Very deep. Deeper than deep. Deepest deep that deep can go.

[RickS (Rick)]

Amazing, M&T

[Placidus (Mike and Trish)]

Originally Posted by Lognic04

Hi M&T,
How would you recommend a CCD (with say, a kaf8300 chip) compared to
something like the ASI1600? The only reason i'd consider getting a CCD would be to bin, is binning worth having a noisier chip?

Don't know the answer to that, Logan, but probably not. Binning only produces a 2x improvement in signal to readout noise. The cooled CMOS chips can be quieter than that. If they made an affordable cooled CMOS chip that was at least 16 megapixels, and it came with a well documented library, we'd definitely want one. But for us, a 2x improvement gave us in 68 hrs the equivalent of 272 hrs unbinned.

Originally Posted by cometcatcher

Deep. Very deep. Deeper than deep. Deepest deep that deep can go.

Thanks Kevin!

Originally Posted by RickS

Amazing, M&T

Cheers, Rick. Glad you like it.

[Atmos (Colin)]

Originally Posted by Lognic04

Hi M&T,
How would you recommend a CCD (with say, a kaf8300 chip) compared to
something like the ASI1600? The only reason i'd consider getting a CCD would be to bin, is binning worth having a noisier chip?

Whether binning is worthwhile also depends upon the sensor architecture. Binning the ASI1600 on chip doesn’t help, it is identical to software binning (sod. On chip binning the KAF16803 sensor (and to a lesser extent the KAF-8300) gives a vast improvement over software binning. Some of the Sony chips bin the best like the ICX-694/814 giving close to the theoretical 4x improvement.

[multiweb (Marc)]

Legend.

[Retrograde (Pete)]

Originally Posted by Placidus

We suspect this really might be (warts and all) the world's deepest plausibly amateur Helix in H-alpha.

Yes I think you might be right.

I don't have any suitable superlatives to appropriately convey my awe.

[Placidus (Mike and Trish)]

Originally Posted by multiweb

Legend.

Originally Posted by Retrograde

Yes I think you might be right.

I don't have any suitable superlatives to appropriately convey my awe.

Thanks muchly Pete. That's kind.