Fornax Cluster / NGC 1365 thru the Bunyip 12.5

[David Fitz-Henr]

I took this data last month while doing some collimation testing; however I didn't quite get it right on the night and really wanted to get more data as well but the weather hasn't co-operated. On looking at it again I thought it didn't look too bad so I decided to go ahead and process what I had collected. There is some slight colour fringing on some stars and the stars in the lower left are very slightly elongated, but apart from that it seems to have turned out reasonably well.

I used some artistic licence and placed the major objects of interest around the periphery of the field, with a couple of colourful stars near the centre. I wanted to include NGC 1399, but unfortunately it was cropped as I was playing with the alignment and it wasn't included in all subs.

Lum-80 mins, Red-70mins, Green-60mins, Blue-70mins.

Large Image: http://www.pbase.com/david_fitz_henry/image/147734710/original

[tilbrook@rbe.ne]

Hi David,

I must say I'm green with envy at the fabulous images you get with your setup.
Iv'e just been cruising around your large image and the crisp detail and colour depth is amazing, and even the fainter stars have a nice hue to them.

Cheers,

Justin.

[Ross G]

A beautiful galaxy photo David.

Love the detail and colour.

Ross.

[allan gould]

David
Like the framing as well as the detail and colour.
A really nice image
Allan

[Mighty_oz]

Really nice, how long were the guided subs for ?

[LewisM]

Wow. Just wow. Speechless...almost.

Now, got to have me some clear skies and about 30 hours with the 8" f/4 :)

[David Fitz-Henr]

Thanks Justin! I did push the saturation a bit in Photoshop to bring out the colour, and had a bit of trouble with colour mottling in the background again before finally getting it to look good. I think this may come about due to a low number of subs in the colour channels (7 subs is not much when trying to stretch the faint detail out) and then saturating the colour overall.


Thanks Ross!


Thanks Allan!


Thanks Marcus; the guided subs were all 10 minutes long. I should also mention that I used the external guidescope / STi for the guiding (instead of the inbuilt guide chip in the STL camera).


Thanks Lewis; actually the way the weather has been here lately we've been lucky to get a few hours a week. I'm hoping it will get better this summer ...

[Mighty_oz]

Just for curiosities sake why not the internal guide chip ? U'd get less flexture problems that way, not that yours has much anyway from your build :)

[David Fitz-Henr]

I was actually experimenting with a few things when I took these subs, and wanted to test out the external guidescope/STi combination. I find that (depending on the elevation of the object) I can get up to 20 minutes without trailing. I intend to use the inbuilt guide chip where possible, but there are cases when it is difficult to get a good guide star (esp. when using a Ha filter); in these cases it will be nice to have an alternative.

[alistairsam]

Not much that can be said about it other than that it looks perfect.
I've heard of people mentioning pin point stars with refractors but I don't think you can get any more pinpoint than what you're getting with a reflector
What would you attribute the sharpness of your images to? mirror, rigidity of your CF OTA, imaging chip, mount?
Really nice work.
Cheers
Alistair

[Scorpius51]

Stunning! Sharpness, detail, framing & colour are superb.

[Stevec35]

To say the least, that's a keeper! Great colour, framing and detail.

Cheers

Steve

[strongmanmike]

Very nice result indeed for a shake down test image David, very sharp, looks like you'll need a mozaic to fit it all in though?

On my screen the image looks clipped (?) with a jet black background that looks like it is hiding the faint fuzzies... but it could also be my screen too as I am using a less than optimal res TV monitor at the moment which decreases dynamic range :sadeyes:.

Mike

[Peter.M]

This image, and your whole Newtonian project has inspired me to continue my home made equipment. When I have a mount that can hold a more substantial scope I plan to make something in this size range.

Keep up the great work!

[marc4darkskies]

That's a ripper David! :thumbsup: You've got some really nice colour going there. I reckon you're a bit of a composition pioneer ... but I won't hold that against you ;):D. Doesn't look black clipped to me although there is probably some more faint signal in there for you to tease out. For a quick check do Image->Adjustments->Equalise.

Cheers, Marcus

[gregbradley]

Another beauty. Your image really shows up the arm going back into the main body. Haven't seen that so well defined before.

Greg.

[David Fitz-Henr]

Thanks Alistair. I have basically designed the scope from the ground up and sourced the best quality components where possible and made the others. Having a rigid tube (Dream Telescopes CF sandwich panel) and high quality optics (Suchting Precision Optics and Antares for secondary), rigid focuser with no slop, and ensuring any potential reflections / scattered light are minimised with flocking / baffles are important. I also wanted a system that was easy to collimate and held the optics securely and rigidly; for instance the secondary assembly I built permits fine control on rotation (a source of frustration in many newtonians).


Thanks John!


Thanks Steve!


Thanks Mike! Actually, if I'd taken more time to get the images aligned I could probably have included NGC1399 at the left edge of the field. I don't think it is clipped though; the background level appears to be around 1400 or so in each colour channel in PS, and the histograms (attached) show a small clearance at the foot of the curve in each channel.


Thanks Peter, that's a great compliment and I'm happy to discuss any aspects of the project.


Thanks Marcus! I did try stetching a little more - there is a tiny amount of extra detail but the background is quite noisy. I only took 8 subs for the luminance, and about 6 or 7 for each colour (all just 10 mins) so I had some trouble controlling the background noise.

[David Fitz-Henr]

Thanks a lot Greg!

[LewisM]

I vote that Bunyip gives THE SHARPEST star points of ANY Newt I have EVER seen - heck, even better than many RC's I have seen! Just perfect rendition - if it was not for the spikes, you'd swear a refractor made the image.

[andyc]

magnificent image, lovely and sharp, and as otehrs have commented the colours are very rich. :thumbsup:

[David Fitz-Henr]

Thanks Lewis and Andy - great compliments and makes all the hard effort worthwhile!

[swannies1983]

Wow, that's a superb shot! I have to agree with how well the scope is performing. Fantastic pinpoint stars.

[sjastro]

That's a very fine image David.

Steven

[midnight]

It's images like this that keep my passion for astronomy and I really like these images which show the varying levels of distance (and time!) with the closer galaxies and the further but smaller ones.

Top work David and thanks for showing us.:thumbsup:

Darrin...

[David Fitz-Henr]

Thanks Dan, Steven and Darrin! Actually I'm up late tonight capturing data for my next image (Horsehead Nebula) - an oasis in the weather at the moment ...

[strongmanmike]

My Apologies Dave, now (after help from Phil Hart and Marcus Davies) that I have adjusted my screen (see my Gabriela Misteral thread) WOW what a difference, awesome image mate!

Mike

[Osirisra]

The pics you are producing with this gear are stunning!

Makes me want to get rid of all my gear and build my own :)

[alpal]

Hi David - that's a fantastic shot - it should be an IOTW.

What coma corrector did you use & what accuracy is the Antares secondary mirror?
They have 3 grades:
http://www.antaresoptics.com/SecEM.php

The field is very flat like an RC.

[multiweb]

Another ripper shot from the Bunyip. Awesome. :thumbsup:

[ReaPerMan]

Super sharp and terrific star colours!!

Top Shot! :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[PRejto]

An inspirational capture! I agree with Greg's comments about the extensive arms in NGC1365....never saw that and very beautiful. Sharpness is amazing! I'd love to see this region again (next year?) with substantial capture time. One imagines it would rock.

Peter

[Larryp]

A truly superb image, David!

[David Fitz-Henr]

Thanks Mike; good to hear that you can now enjoy all the wonderful images on this site :lol:


Thanks Ken, it's been a journey to get here ...


Thanks Allan! I use a 3" Wynne corrector made by ASA (designed by Dr Phillip Keller). The Antares secondary I chose is guaranteed to 1/20 wave PV, and the wavefront analysis provided with the mirror shows that it is actually good to 0.041 wave PV (~1/24 wave).


Thanks Marc!


Thanks Paul!


Thanks Peter! With the weather we've been having though I'm not sure when I'll try it again ...


Thanks Larry!

[carl37]

Magnificent image Dave!!

I totally agree with all the other comments in this thread.

I'm surprised no-one has mentioned this yet, but you've managed (inadvertantly perhaps) to capture supernova SN2012fr at close to it's brightest. It's the bright blue star near the centre of NGC 1365.

That makes your image even more special.

I definitely think it should be IOTW!!

:thumbsup:

[David Fitz-Henr]

Thanks Carl! There were a few images recently of NGC 1365 showing the supernova SN2012fr so I sort of forgot to mention it when I posted this.