Leo Triplet

[Paul Haese]

I have been working on collecting data for this image for several months. The aim was to obtain an image which not only showed the galaxies in detail but the galactic cirrus too. At this point with a little over 7.5 hours and as pointed out by Mike below there is no cirrus in the area. Perhaps it is a gradient. Although it might just be dust and gas between us and the star. (edit added later)
Overall I am pretty happy with the look of the image but I want to get another 5 or so hours yet to complete the image.

For image statistics look below the image.

Click here (http://paulhaese.net/LeoTriplet.html)for image.

[Joshua Bunn]

Oh boy... there is some great resolution and colour in those galaxies. thankyou.

Josh

[alexandre]

Hello Paul.
You can be proud of you because it is a very beautiful image and of good colors!!
It's a nice image for me!

bye!;)
@lex

[Larryp]

Nice image, Paul. Lots of definition in those galaxies:thumbsup:

[gbeal]

Lovely shot Paul, really nice galaxy detail.
I saw a recent shot, with a DSLR and 200/2, and boy oh boy, the tidal tail from the edge on was fantastic. Mind you it was something like 26 hours of capture!!.
Great shot.
Gary

[strongmanmike]

Nice looking Leo trio Paul, some good detail in the galaxies for a little scope love the nicely saturated colours and the strong blue too ;)

That's not galactic cirrus though...a star doesn't illuminate galactic cirrus, it hovers above the Milky Way and is illuminated by the Milky Way as a whole and generally shows structure rather than being a vague glow. I think the GC in that area is ultra faint too (or non existent even?) can't find an image that shows it in that area. What you have there looks more like a gradient, possibly some cloud (doubt that) or just your processing, maybe less than optimal flats..?

You can make out the tidal stream coming off NGC 3268 though so that's pretty cool :thumbsup:

Nice work

Mike

[multiweb]

Nice shot. Some very good details in the dust lanes. Great colors too. Well done. :thumbsup:

[Paul Haese]

Thanks guys,

Mike you are right. Was not thinking when I did this last night. A star in our galaxy cannot illuminate dust outside it. Derr. I am not sure it is a gradient though. It is in an odd shape in the Blue and Lum frames and much more obvious when stretched right out. There is some faint light pollution towards that part of the sky eminating from Adelaide so that may be the source. Although in a search on the net there are a lot of images with that blue around the blue star and surrounds. In any event my original statement was completely wrong and thanks for pointing that out.

[Rigel003]

That's coming along nicely Paul. Lovely colour and exquisite detail for a 4". That fine detail's a tribute to your great tracking and super steady skies. I still find the levels of the background to be on the low side. A small boost in Shadows and Highlights brings it up and makes the tidal tail of NGC 3628 more obvious. Also increases the number of background stars.

[DavidU]

Very nice ! Cool tight stars.:thumbsup:

[Ross G]

Great looking wide photo Paul.

Beautiful colour and detail.


Ross.

[David Fitz-Henr]

Very nice Paul - great colour and details, and nice tight stars across the full frame! Well done!

[marc4darkskies]

Beautiful Paul! Great colour and detail! :thumbsup:

You could probably get away with rendering the faint halos around all three and the tidal stream near 3628 a bit more if you wanted.

Cheers, Marcus

[Rod771]

Thats off the top shelf Paul

Well done mate :thumbsup:

[E_ri_k]

That's fantastic Paul, well done. Beautiful image :)
Erik

[iceman]

Beautiful image. The galaxies are very detailed.

[niko]

extraordinary Paul!!

such detail in the galaxies

love, love, love it!

niko

[hotspur]

That is really nice,makes one stop and take the hand away from mouse and think-what is out there.

[Paul Haese]

Thanks guys, I really appreciate the positive comments.



I knew you would say that Graeme. I do wonder though if our monitors are showing things differently. I also think it might be time to consider an AO unit for this system. With the good seeing I get down there I should really try to improve the images even more.



Do you think it needs more time to make that possible though Marcus? Or perhaps deeper subs?

[Peter Ward]

I've been a bit busy with work and missed this one....

Aye currumba.... wish I'd taken it.... simply excellent :thumbsup::thumbsup:

[Astroman]

This one is a definite on the "to do" list. Got to give it a go with the 80mm scope now I have modified it... You image looks terrific Paul, can just see that blueish stuff around the star, any dew around during those exposures? Like the detail you have in the galaxies also... Would love to get a pic with the tidal tail one day...

[Paul Haese]

Thanks Pete, high praise.



No dew Andrew. Graeme said he had the same problem when he imaged this too. I think next session I will just get more Lum data and see if I can get all the tidal tail, just to complete the data mix.

[marc4darkskies]

I can't be sure, but I think the data might already be there - I haven't actually looked myself. In photoshop use the Equalize function to identify where the dim extents are and then use Jay Gabeny's LCS technique.

http://www.cosmotography.com/images/sky_and_telescope/layered_contrast_stretching.pdf

Of course, as with most processing, extreme stretching of faint extents is a personal taste thing and will depend on how well you can mitigate noise and keep it looking "natural".

Make no mistake Paul, I reckon this is already a hum dinger of an image! :thumbsup:

Cheers, Marcus

[A23649]

I did a quick extreme stretch of the JPEG and it is certainly there. I then did a bit more fiddling to keep Paul's original colours and (I hope) contrast.

Cheers,
Nathan

[gregbradley]

A remarkable image Paul. I was surprised to see it was taken with the TSA102. I assumed it must have been taken with your 12 inch RC.

Greg.

[Paul Haese]

Interesting. I forgot I had read about this at some point in Sky and Telescope several months ago. Thanks for the reminder. I did some work and now the link had an image with this technique applied to it. I can see the tidal stream much easier now.



Yeah the TSA can produce the goods.;) The 12" RC would produce a much bigger image, but I think the roof of my observatory cuts down the light considerably on the 12. I want to give M104 a go with the RC12 though. I am yet to produce an image of that target and the 12" would be perfect for the job.

[Geoff45]

Excellent shot Paul. Great colour. I agree with Marcus that there may be some more detail lurking there with a bit of a push.
Geoff
Note added: I gave it a bit of a stretch and there is a distinct star trail going down from the hamburger.

[Carl]

Great resolution of detail there paul. Another great shot

Carl

[jjjnettie]

An amazing image.
It will be interesting to see how much more you'll pull out of the back ground with more data. :)

[Paul Haese]

Thanks all for the comments.


JJJ I might just do another 4 hours on the lum and see what that gives me.

[naskies]

Looks great, Paul! If I may ask... I noticed that your blue exposures are longer than the red/green exposures. Is that to compensate for atmospheric extinction given the low altitude of the target?

[Paul Haese]

Thanks Dave, Yes that is mostly the reason for the longer exposure. I have been doing this for a while with the blue being longer. At one point I was doing 20 minute subs in blue and 15 minutes in each of the green and red. I found I was loosing star colour at that length and dropped down to 10 and 5 minutes respectively. I am now thinging 15 and 10 are the go. When I have full automation going I will the software deal with the length of time.