Barnard's Galaxy - work in progress

[marc4darkskies]

That's my middle name now - work-in-progress!!!

Since my imaging drought has lasted so long, I'll take any excuse to post :D. So, here is a "work-in-progress" of NGC 6822. As you can see B&W only - about 4.5 hours of Lum & Ha in equal portions. Needless to say the only decent imaging night during the current no-moon period was Sunday night. :( Seeing was good though.

Nothing awfully exciting yet but I'm pretty happy with it and it will look much better with a bit more Lum and some RGB. This is quite a photogenic galaxy, especially if you add a bit of Ha to make the emission nebs pop and process the blue star clusters properly. I believe the data is just starting to show galactic cirrus too but it's too faint to push too hard without getting a lot of noise - it's there though!

Full res full frame (trimmed for dithering artefacts). Use the "Cntrl -" trick if you don't like looking at full res :screwy::
http://www.pbase.com/gailmarc/image/157224548/original

Wish me luck with the next new moon!! :prey:

[RickS]

Looks very promising, Marcus. It has been a long time coming. Hope you get a run of decent weather soon!

[Octane]

That is going to be special once complete!

H

[Paul Haese]

Looks pretty good already Marcus, what sub length are you using? I like the Ha gas showing through. Those must be big regions of gas and dust.

[Eden]

Nice work, Marcus -- I look forward to seeing how this piece evolves and will be watching with interest. :thumbsup:

[Rex]

Looks pretty good Marc. Can't wait to see it withmore data.

[marc4darkskies]

Thanks Rick, patience is a virtue I guess!



Cheers H - glad you think so!



Thanks Paul. Lum=9x15min, Ha=6x20mins (didn't have time for 30 minute Ha subs on the night) - 4.25 hours. Yes, those HII regions are huge!





Thanks guys!

[Ross G]

So much detail Marcus.

It's going to look great!

Ross.

[marc4darkskies]

Thanks Ross! I sure hope so! :)

[strongmanmike]

Yaay! :cool:

Looking good Marcus :thumbsup:

Actually, I was considering this target for my first light from the new observatory :)...we'll see

Mike

[Peter Ward]

To quote Darth Vader "Impressive. Most impressive" :thumbsup:

[marc4darkskies]

Of course you were! :) We are telepathETic you know! I should finish mine in Sept .... 2015 :help:



Ta Peter. “Now, witness the power of this fully operational battle station.” ;):D

[David Fitz-Henr]

That's looking reeeeally good Marcus; you seem to have the collimation under control now! Seeing was obviously quite good as well so the final colour image should be specatcular :thumbsup:

[gregbradley]

That looks very good Marcus. It must be thrilling to get an image out of the new system.

I have never imaged that galaxy but I think its quite a dim object and your image is showing it clearly so that is great.

Greg.

[marc4darkskies]

Thanks David! Yes, my collimation journey was "fun" :scared2:. Seeing was very good for the first few subs and then deteriorated as altitude decreased. Average FWHM for the combined session after some light decon was 1.97 arcsecs. This compares to the first 2 subs of 1.87 arcsecs without any decon. Oh ... to have that kind of seeing all the time! :sadeyes:



Thanks Greg. Over the moon mate. OS delivered on the promise - it just took me a while to get my drivers license! :ashamed: And yes, I do think this is a rather underrated object - there aren't many good renditions out there. It does need some image scale / focal length to do it justice though.

[Stevec35]

Looks very impressive Marcus. I'm looking forward to the colour Nothing wrong with posting works in progress - I do it all the time.

Cheers

Steve

[marc4darkskies]

Thanks Steve! Hoping I post a finished work soon though! :)

[Shiraz]

very impressive resolution Marcus - looking forward to the final result.

[marco]

It looks you are going to get a fantastic final image Marcus, details are great, just missing the colors (for now) !

Clear skies
Marco

[marc4darkskies]

Thank you kindly Ray & Marco! Yes, pretty chuffed with the resolution and, though the seeing was good, it wasn't the best I've seen here! Fingers crossed the weather lets me finish it this month!