A pleasing NGC 6188

[Peter Ward]

This data-set is probably one of the best I have gathered in a while...under a full moon to boot!

Kudos to Martin Pugh for making me lift my game and realise an AO-X on a FSQ can make a difference. (Martin kindly showed me some of his data of the same region a while back)

Sorry. No colour (yet). I was simply delighted with the light and shadow that nature can surprise us with...

The link is here (http://www.atscope.com.au/BRO/gallery356.html)

[LewisM]

LOVE it Peter!

[SimmoW]

Yes very nice! Exposure details?

[Stevec35]

Looking good Peter. Very nice composition too. Colour should be great.

Cheers

Steve

[Placidus]

Hi Peter,

Magnificent. One gets a strong feeling of two humongous clouds colliding, one closer, one further away, over-riding each other in three dimensions. The Norma Bipolar Nebula and its faint outer shell came out well.

Best,

[gregbradley]

That looks great. That should put a stop to any discussion about whether an AO unit helps or not.

Greg.

[Peter Ward]

Thanks Greg....I find the AO conversation to be entertaining when its decided seeing isn't being corrected after all, so it must be the mount. In any event the raw data shows stars around 9 micron across the entire 16803 chip, i.e a single pixel...very pleasing to see!



Thanks!

Ta. I'm hoping the weather will allow a NB sequence...



3 hours of H-alpha so far...

Glad you like it!

[Paul Haese]

Full res?

I have been collecting data on 6164 for months and months with the RC12. It's a fascinating object.

Nice scale, contrast.

Yes Martin has a habit of doing that. ;)

[Andy01]

Looks great, would love to see a narrowband colour version :)

[Peter Ward]

Ta...given it's a full moon it will probably stay clear for the NB data



Thanks Paul.....2/3rd's res to keep it web friendly. The field is cropped from the attached full-field....which looks quite awesome uncompressed at full res :)

[rustigsmed]

yep, very pleasing Peter :thumbsup: and good to know the 7nm filter has handled the full moon quite nicely (granted it in a different part of the sky).

[cometcatcher]

That's a beautiful Ha image.

[Retrograde]

I normally find black & white images less than exciting but wow this has such amazing texture and subtlety.

[Peter Ward]

I appreciate the feedback...as for the moon, how typical...as it wanes I'm seeing the clouds build...sigh..





Thanks for the positive comments. B&W images do need light and shade, as they can be a bit boring without it. That said... some SII and OIII would be awesome. :cloudy:

[multiweb]

That fov is insanely huge and pinpoint from corner to corner. Very cool. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

Regarding the AO discussion I agree with mount correction and improved guiding with a tilt/tip system but I honestly can't see how seeing related to one star in the center of the fov could possibly correlate to the stars on the entire field so I still think Gaston has a point.

My tilt/tip does a great job on narrow field with a smallish sensor.

[Peter Ward]

Thank you Marc, your comments are as always appreciated. Re: the AO-X
I suspect there are several factors at work, and subscribe to the theory if the seeing is "slow" then the correlation can be high across a good sized aperture.

I also have no doubt virtually instant and accurate guiding corrections by deftly moving few tens of grams of AO, rather than 100kg of telescope/counterweights/mount pays a dividend. However you cut it, tighter and brighter stars is the result I see time and time again.

By the way, I was guiding at a slovenly 2Hz...sadly a brighter guidestar was not available.

[multiweb]

I don't disagree with that but your whole field is way over a couple of degrees across?

No argument there.

Yes it is also my experience up to 5Hz is realistically achievable and does an excellent job at smoothing all the "noise".

[Joshua Bunn]

Awesome field Peter, Absolutely love the contrast and 3D effect!

[dvj]

Well the image is lovely, not an argument from me, a long time user of the FSQ/Atlas/and Proline 16803 system. The AOX however is a puzzle. With a 16803 array, 9um pixels, and the FSQ, the resolution is 3.5 arcseconds per pixel. Can that be bested with the AOX? IMO, the bigger failure of the FSQ system and resolution is the focal length change with temperature. This has become such an annoyance, I've dropped my 40 minute subs to 30 minutes.

j

[Peter Ward]

Ta very muchly !

The AO-X/FSQ creates what I call "single pixel guiding"....works for me :)
...and yep...noticed the focal plane shift...a real PITA...

Running 10 minute subs and I had to tweak the focal plane after every sub.




Thank you Josh.

[Joshua Bunn]

Do you have automation software to do this?

[Paul Haese]

I have found that giving a really good cool down works well. I generally automate to refocus after each sub frame, but the long cool down is really necessary to manage the focus shift for the first two hours.

[Eden]

Beautiful image, Peter! Would love to see a comparison of this Ha data with the SII and OIII channels. :thumbsup:



Hmm! Perhaps this is why the SBIG AO product pages only show images of single and/or binary stars, as opposed to an entire edge-to-edge field? :question:

[Peter Ward]

No... but I also have other reasons to check every 10 minutes....(this happens to me a lot)

[Peter Ward]

I think I've addressed this earlier...suffice to say that's not the experience I've had...plus it would seem to be a helping factor in Martin Pugh's stunning images. :thumbsup:

[RickS]

A very nice result, Peter! Hope you get enough good weather to complete a colour version.

Cheers,
Rick.

[marco]

One of my preferred area of the sky, good one, can't wait to see with color added :)
Cheers
Marco

[Peter Ward]

Thanks guys. I've started collecting the SII data...6 hours and counting, but have to say, it sure is dim in the SII part of spectrum. Looks like it needs 4x that!
(had a quick look at the OIII...also seems equally dim...sigh..)

[marc4darkskies]

Can't wait to see what colour you add Peter! A beautiful field with nicely balanced processing.:thumbsup: