M104 and M20

[Shiraz]

Hi
Finally had a couple of dark clear nights with fairly good seeing and managed to complete a few hours each on M104 and M20. I think that M104 is one of the most striking of all the galaxies and M20 is just beautiful. I wan't sure what to do about M104 colour (seems to be a lot of dust in the way), so tried to match that in the Hubble image. Thanks for looking and appreciate any feedback.

regards Ray

M104 http://www.astrobin.com/full/187862/0/?real=&mod=

M20 http://www.astrobin.com/full/187859/0/?real=&mod=

[strongmanmike]

Well, not much to say Ray other than both are absolutely beautiful views, two of the best versions of both objects I have seen taken with a (true) amateur size instrument from a non pro mountain seeing site :thumbsup:

Enjoyed :D

I know your scope is well tuned but you do seem to get some good seeing...lucky bugger

Mike

[AG Hybrid]

Your image of M20 is absolutely superb. I don't know what the IIS picture of the week is right now but it isn't as pretty as that picture.

[g__day]

Simply wow!

[Joshua Bunn]

Ray!!... They are superb! Very easy on the eyes, subtle, but natural looking colours, not overdone, especially M104. I like the fine detail and the background is quite smooth. What were the exposure numbers?

Josh

[AG Hybrid]

After taking a double take on your M104 image. The resolution is excellent. Your mount tracking must be sensibly perfect.

Are those lots of globular clusters around the galaxy itself?

[topheart]

Great Images and great username - Shiraz!

Cheers,
Tim

[Geoff45]

As always, great images Ray. I particularly like the Sombrero. Getting all that delicate detail in the disc is no easy task.
Geoff

[Eden]

Beautiful work, Ray. Two of my favourite targets captured in splendid detail. :thumbsup:

[Rex]

Woooooow! :bowdown::bowdown: two absolutely superb images Ray. Both showing amazing detail and very natural. Something to aspire too.

[Shiraz]

thanks very much Mike - very generous. The seeing has been good at times, but the biggest thing was building an ROR obs. I can now use an aircon to get the scope surrounds quite cool during the day and that has improved local seeing by maybe 1/2 an arcsecond over what I used to get.


thank you Adrian. I agree, it really is a beautiful object.


Hi Matthew - thanks very much


Hi Josh. thanks for the kind comments. M104 was 7.5 Lum, 6 RGB and M20 was 3.3 Lum and 3.7 RGB. all 1x1 @ 3 minute subs (3 minutes is about optimum for L with this system under my typical sky, but I also use that for colour to improve stars even though not optimum). There is still a bit of noise in the background, but its not too bad.


the mount is not perfect, but it does well enough with some coaxing. Yes, those are globs - Rolf went to the trouble of identifying them in his image at http://www.pbase.com/rolfolsen/image/143968106/original


hi Tim. thank you. best winegrape variety in the world!


Thanks very much Geoff. It took a fair bit of time to get reasonable data - I had to discard frames with poor seeing, so a lot of bits ended up on the cutting room floor.


Mine favourites too Eden, along with NGC253 - thanks for your comments


Hi Rex. thank you for your very generous comment.

Regards Ray

[Placidus]

Ray, the Trifid is excellent - beautiful handling of the HH jet and the various bow shocks, but the Sombrero is just jaw-droppingly magnificent. Awesome.

Best,
M&T

[jase]

Two very stunning images Ray. Data expertly handled. Hard to pick which I like best. Perhaps M20. Are these crops or full frame? Looking forward to seeing more. :thumbsup:

[TR]

Ray,

That M104 is a great image. Nice stars, the colours very nice throughout the whole image. Best of all, it's not clipped like others I have seen. Very nice job. Nice job on M20 as well.

Terry

[multiweb]

Absolutely superb Ray. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup: Incredible image scale and dynamic range. Top processing.
Was that shot with the GSO 300? Trying to work out the FL. That's gotta be over 3m right?

[gregbradley]

Stunning Ray.
Just beautiful.
Greg

[Peter Ward]

Sorry, not so keen on the M20...a little too neon for my liking....but...

What a sublime M104!! Wonderful stuff

:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[Shiraz]

Thanks Mike - really appreciate the comments.



Hi Jase. thanks a lot. both are crops, with about 0.6 of the M20 and 0.8 of the M104 retained. Cropped to tidy up overlap regions and improve the composition.


Thanks you Terry - spent a lot of time trying to control the stretch so that the clipping was minimal, so appreciate your feedback


Hi Marc. many thanks. this was through the SW 250f4. the fl is 1m and the sampling is 0.91 arcsec/pix with the 694 camera.


Hi Greg. many thanks.


Thanks for the comments Peter. I am on the long road of trying to understand how colour data behaves under stretching, so appreciate the feedback on M20 - will revisit and see what can be done to tame it.

Regards Ray

[strongmanmike]

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooo, it's absolutely fabulously perfect mate!!!!, seriously, one of the best I have seen, the colour is very similar to Marcus' great version from last year...don't you dare touch that colour...don't you dare :mad2: (it would be nice to see juuust a touch of teal green in the reflection area though...if that's ok, please)

:lol:

[Shiraz]

:rofl: OK OK OK, got it.

Actually, I did think that it was a bit too neon when processing, but the data wanted to go that way, so I let it - and I ended up liking it (a bit like eating a grapefruit). I will have another look though, but whatever results will be version 2.

[strongmanmike]

Just added the teal green comment :D

Seriously, mate it is perfect otherwise

Mike

[Shiraz]

I was concerned by the lack of green as well, but couldn't get it to shine through without fiddling with separate masks, so I left it as it wanted to be. As said, I am still trying to understand how color works, so will have another try at it. Regards Ray

[multiweb]

I reckon if there's brown or green in it then it must be real. Your skies are dark enough. Bring on the real colors. Don't worry about the HLVG mob. :thumbsup:

[Rod771]

Fantastic work, Ray! The M104 is a dead set cracker!!

Well done!:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[strongmanmike]

Yes, there is, that is what I was saying, not to remove the green.

Mama mia :)

[multiweb]

So I assume this is the cropped central area correct? About 25% off the edges? This fov is close to what I get with the C11 + x.64 reducer.
Great image scale.
Did you use the AO at all? You've picked up bucket loads of small milky way stars and details. :thumbsup:
You've mentioned poor seeing? If that's poor seeing in SA I'm not too sure what good seeing means in Sydney then. :lol:

[multiweb]

I wasn't talking about you. :lol:

[strongmanmike]

Oh?...so who said get rid of the green then...:question:..ok, where are they? come out, I'll get rid of their green for'em :mad2: :lol:

Mike

[SpaceNoob]

Two pretty damn stunning images there Ray, wish I could get my stars to look like that! I just end up with fuzzballs.

[Shiraz]

OK


thanks Rod!


the M104 is about 80% of the full image (5Mpix)
no AO, just ordinary guiding through a modified finderscope. The good thermal control of the ROR observatory seems to help with seeing.
I used "Fits Image grader" to find those subs that had below par seeing and reject them. even on good nights there are some subs where the seeing has fallen off for a short while. The seeing for the remaining M104 subs averaged out at ~2 arcsec - not sure how that compares with your site, but it was pretty good for here.


Thanks Chris. I just looked up your M20 - thought your stars looked fine - in fact its a top image all round.

regards Ray

[multiweb]

Best FWHM I've ever had was 1.7 but that was Ha. Don't get much 2s here in Sydney especially in color. Between 2.5 and 3 on a good night. Exceptionally 1.9 from Ilford which is higher but that's only a couple of nights per year.

[rustigsmed]

Very very nice Ray, I love both of them, especially m104 also seeing the antennae in m20 is impressive.

Russ

[Paul Haese]

Lovely images Ray. I really liked both of them. I dare say that your M104 is as nice as mine and I am very proud of that shot; as well as you should be of this. Colour is excellent, back ground nice and silky and detail is nicely handled. It's my favourite of the two.

M20 is superbly processed with lovely star colours and smooth background. Certainly a bench mark standard to review when my time comes to image it in long focal length. :)

[Shiraz]

thanks for the comments Russ.


Thanks Paul - very generous. Looking forward to your M20.

regards Ray

[LewisM]

That 104...just...wow. Simply WOW.

I think M20 looks OK colourwise - better than most that is for sure - but the resolution and detail, again, wow.

[LucasB]

I love both of these images. This version of M104 has become my favourite astro image of all time. Awesome!
Lucas

[cometcatcher]

The detail in M104 is astounding an I like the colour in M20! Really shows what a 10 inch F4 Newtonian can do.

[CosmicEcho]

Sorry Paul, but this image is superior. It has better colour. sports a more honest halo around the galaxy, and the stars, well, they are better as well.

This has my :thumbsup:.

[Shiraz]

Thanks Lewis - appreciate the comments. I guess I could have done better on the M20 colour, but maybe will get back to it sometime in the future.


Thanks you Lucas - very glad you liked it.


Thanks Kevin. I was very lucky with the seeing and the scope seems to have done its job.


Thanks for the sentiment Cosmic - very much appreciated. However, I do think that Paul's image is a very fine one in all respects :thumbsup:.

regards Ray

[RickS]

Another couple of great images, Ray! I've been away for a few weeks and there has been some amazing stuff posted. Perhaps I need to go overseas more often :)

[rmuhlack]

The 694 on a 250 f4 scope really hits the sweetspot of both sensitivity and sampling, and when combined with your masterful processing... well that M104 is superb in every respect. :thumbsup:

[Shiraz]

Thanks Rick - yes, it's getting harder to get good enough data to post - lots of competition:lol:


Thanks for the generous comments Richard. It's certainly a nice combo to use, but there has been enough good seeing lately to suggest that a little finer sampling might occasionally be a good idea.

Regards Ray