Pas de deux

[Peter Ward]

Unfortunately for me, this dynamic duo didn't make the cut at this year's CWAS astrophoto comp....but, cest' la vie.

Taken with my AP honders...

Your can view the image here (http://www.atscope.com.au/BRO/gallery349.html)

[multiweb]

Quoi? M8 didn't get selected? Sacrilege!
Still a very cool shot. :thumbsup:

[Peter Ward]

Thanks Marc...yes, incredible I know, but I guess too much vanilla can also be problematic. ;)

[Stevec35]

As good a shot of this duo as I've ever seen Peter.

Cheers

Steve

[Paul Haese]

It's a nice image Peter, with good colour in the nebulae, detail looks good and sharp. However, I wonder if the background star field lacks colour in the stars?

[topheart]

Peter,

Well, if that one couldn't even get a "Malin mention", the standard must have been astronomically high!

Cheers,
Tim

[DavidU]

Great work Peter. Excellent.

[Slawomir]

That is a beautiful image Peter. Perfect stars to the corners.

Just wandering whether black point has been clipped a bit.

[gregbradley]

Its a good image for sure. It must be a 2 panel mosaic right?

Greg.

[Peter Ward]

Yes. 2 panel.











Thanks for the input guys...I still "made the cut" with another image, but thought this one wasn't too shabby. I suspect some bugger with pristine skies and a 20" CDK is making the CWAS comp a whole lot tougher :)

[Joshua Bunn]

Magnificent view Peter, soo many pinpoint sharp stars.

Josh

[RickS]

I like the dark, brooding look, Peter.

[Phil Hart]

hi Peter

It's a lovely sharp image (like all your recent posts!) and the nebulae themselves are punchy and uber saturated. But there seems to be something going on with the colour of the milky way star background. It seems like the background is almost completely desaturated, save for some magenta (Ha?) overlay in some areas and a little patch of yellow hued stars at far bottom right. That yellow hue is what I would expect across most of the frame?

I didn't enter deep sky but can't promise you won't want to punch me on the night. Little bird says it could be some new entrants with modest gear doing themselves proud rather than 20" monsters stealing the show. Look forward to seeing many folks from IIS there again. Amazing line-up of presenters this year.. not to be missed!

cheers
Phil

[Phil Hart]

hmm.. sorry i may have jumped the gun a bit. looking at another image of this region it does appear that the milky way background between these two is less colourful and that the yellow hued patch you have is into an area of stronger colour. it still looks a tad strange to my eyes but may be 'correct' - i'm sure you have fairly robust processing in place!

Phil

[Paul Haese]

That is exactly how I saw it Phil regarding the colour. I did 100 minutes integration for each colour for my recent Trifid image with the FSQ. It shows nice star colours below the Trifid and hence my thoughts about field colour.

I'll miss catching up with you this year Phil and Peter. I picked up a gong in DSO section but don't think we will be attending. Yes the speakers for this years CWAS would be great to see.

Sorry for the hi-jacking Peter.

[Peter Ward]

Thanks again for the input guys. No-hijack apologies required.

In retrospect, my struggle with severe gradients from the light glow from a city of of close to 5 million residents has likely resulted in the lack of saturation of the field stars.....something DM is *always* very picky about :doh:

I sincerely hope to be able to catch up with one and all at CWAS/Parkes (pending the TBA outcome of my work roster for July)

My prognostication for CWAS 2015 ? I suspect I'll be taking a back seat but...
I do recall Phil's delightful comet animation...
Paul has been prolific in DSO
plus there has been an Arctic total solar eclipse
and some amazing CME solar activity (Southern Aurora?)

It will be an interesting night!

[Placidus]

That's a pretty definitive dynamic duo, Peter. There's an amazing amount of fine detail given the breadth of sky covered - an atlas. Inspiring.

[Paul Haese]

Being prolific this year did not mean there was anything that really caught David's eye. As you know it has to be something out of the ordinary from what he sees. I will be very interested to see which images are awarded.

I would not be surprised as you pointed out if an Aurora shot featured highly.

[jase]

Nup, you gotta pay special attention to stars for it to be a contender with Malin. While you've got an impressive amount of details the background is lacklustre. Its needs the rich golden vibrant hue of milkyway star clouds for the image to come to life. Gleason's recent image of the area is a prime example. Said it before and will do so again, but you need to get your set up to a dark sky site otherwise your ferrari will remain stuck if 1st gear constantly hitting the rev limiter.

[topheart]

I also can't wait to see and analyse the Malin deep sky favorites this year.....

[Peter Ward]

Thank you, but I suspect your sublime imagery has to be in contention :thumbsup: (damm those dark skies :lol: )



A dark sky would be nice...but I doubt it will happen before retirement (still a few years off). That said I've got high hopes for the 16" Alluna (still some months away) as a galaxy killer .....way less gradients to fuss over :)



Troy Casswell's work...assuming he entered etc. will be very hard to surpass..




Glad you like it.

[Retrograde]

A very fine image Peter. I certainly wouldn't have noticed any issues with it if they hadn't been pointed out by others.



Hope to see you and other IIS members there. I'm very pleased to have made 'the cut' with one of my entries for the first time this year but of course not in the Deep Sky section - there's no way my rudimentary efforts can compete with the fine work being produced by yourself, Paul and many others on this forum but seeing them gives me something to aspire to. I'm sure the standard will be extremely high this year :thumbsup:.

[SpaceNoob]

Top image Peter, that setup is a real winner and you've clearly got a good handle on it. I'd be happy with those results, they speak for themselves, no need for an award to justify the awesomeness. :thumbsup:

[Peter Ward]

Thanks and ditto. Also well done on your first "Malin" :thumbsup:....CWAS have some excellent key-note speakers this year which I'm quite looking forward to hearing....I just hope I can get the time off for the Astrofest.

[Peter Ward]

Thanks...I think Aussie Astrophotograhers owe a lot to CWAS for simply raising the public awareness and standard of local astrophotography.

Compared to a decade ago, contemporary images are simply brilliant, and are often not taken with uber-expensive gear. It's all good :thumbsup:

[Rex]

That's a cracker Pete. awesome detail and love the saturation.

[topheart]

[QUOTE=Peter Ward;1182418]Thank you, but I suspect your sublime imagery has to be in contention :thumbsup: (damm those dark skies :lol: )

You won't see any of my images at Parkes.:(:( Sorry, I won't be able to it make to Parkes this year due to another unshakeable committment.:mad2:

All the best with the Malins!

Cheers,
Tim

[gregbradley]

Its a great image but the light pollution is taking its toll. You don't want to do narrowband? Some 3nm narrowband filters would be nice on your STT8300 and AO8. That could be nice.

Yes I agree the standard of imaging has continued to rise. The QSI683/690/FSQ/FLT110 combos are working out great.

Greg.

[Peter Ward]

I actually rather like NB.... you can gather data (as you know) under a full-moon just as well as a lucky punter blessed with mag 7 skies.

Sadly, I don't have a STT8300 at present (It went to a needy Ph.D student)
but that will (hopefully) soon be remedied.....Seems I'm always waiting for something to arrive ;)

[gregbradley]

I haven't found NB working ideally under a full moon with 5nm Astrdons. Perhaps 3nm do. I see a drop in contrast when the moon is too bright or too close to the object being imaged. I still see best Ha under dark skies but it does work quite well under bright moon and light pollution. Dark skies are always better and usually better seeing as well (I am sure the concrete jungle messes up the atmosphere's stability).

Greg.

[Peter Ward]

Can't say I've ever seen any NB issues from urban skies, as the sky background (at SII, Ha and OIII emission line frequencies) is effectively identical to rural ones.

Also provided you a good angular distance from it, the moon has little effect.

But , sure, at under 40 or so degrees you will see either gradients or even instrument scattering effects getting worse as you progressively get closer to the moon.
(I've had my fair share of capturing (near moon) data with weird flares thinking "WTF!! ??" :) )

OIII is worst offender. SII and H-a seem more immune.

I'm not alone here, there have been healthy discussions and analysis elsewhere.

e.g.
http://www.cloudynights.com/topic/493263-testing-oiii-filter-for-the-moons-impact/

[multiweb]

Beware the Luftwaffe (https://onedrive.live.com/?cid=6930D3AD12D5044C&id=6930d3ad12d5044c%211169&v=3)run.

[gregbradley]

Sometimes those flares are handy if your go-tos are badly off and you are trying to sync the mount.

Greg.