Hourglass close up in Ha

[multiweb]

Got out last night for the conjunction and missed the show due to the only clouds in Oz, conveniently located above my house in Sydney. I remember sitting on the sofa around 10:00pm and looking at pictures on FB from everybody. Albury, QLD, Melbourne, SA ... even Perth. wtf! :lol:

By 10:00pm the moon crescent got just under the cloud layer while setting down and that gave me a quick window of opportunity to focus the scope, align the finder and focus the OAG as well. Ha 7nm at prime on a C11 is a fairly tight fov and dark as, so you need something uber bright to find it.

I then slewed to M8 and got the cluster and hour glass in the field. The Lodestar on the OAG focused fine, did its thing and I was away cranking 3min subs with reasonable guiding. Lost a lot of subs due to passing clouds and the guide star disappeared a couple of time. Clouded again quickly at 11:00pm. Shot my flats then. By 1:00am it was clear but so dewy you could see the fog in the sky. Incredible. I needed a mop so I covered everything and went to bed.

Got very little data (15x3min) but the seeing wasn't too shabby. I added the GSO 8" fov to show the C11 fov size.

I have a HD version here (https://onedrive.live.com/?id=6930D3AD12D5044C%211530&cid=6930D3AD12D5044C&group=0&parId=6930D3AD12D5044C%211056&o=OneUp):

All the stuffing around with the C11 primary paid off. It holds collimation and is giving me some nice pics now I have the mirrors spacing and everything down pat. It's as heavy as a dead donkey though. Minor problem for now but as I get older it'll have to be mounted permanently.

[gregbradley]

Wow, love the way you get that detail around the core. All those little cloud folds and ripples. Fabulous.

Greg.

[pluto]

That's very nice, well done! :)

[multiweb]

Thanks guys.



At that FL those details are easier to extract. With good seeing you could get a lot more I reckon.

[strongmanmike]

Mawww, the Lagoon, your baby :love:

Looks good Marc :thumbsup:...sounds like it was a wet night :scared:

Mike

[gregbradley]

:rofl::rofl:

I reckon you are the ripple and fold man.:rofl:

Greg.

[troypiggo]

Very cool mate

[Placidus]

Hi, Marc,

Delighted to see you're risking your back and getting the long focal length beast out. The dust lane across the centre of the hourglass is faultless :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:. I'm guessing that the 3 minute subs helped with that. So easy to burn out.

Heroic work pressing on despite cloud and soggy dew. Hoping to see more!

Best,
Mike

[multiweb]

Thanks a lot guys.:thumbsup:



Thanks Mike. Well, after the macquarie night viewing I've been waiting to image with it. Skippy sky said it would be clear but those bloody clouds wouldn't move on. I could see the blue just out west. I thing the easterly breeze kept everything nice and moist.

[DJScotty]

Spectacular detail and focus.
Imagine the detail you could get with a mosaic of the whole thing shot with the C11!

[jase]

Just add diffraction spikes and tell everyone you've got a 10" RC. ;)
It was certainly worth the effort Marc. Great image.

[Shiraz]

:thumbsup:crikey that's really good - top shelf resolution and smooth!:thumbsup:

[Stevec35]

Looks good Marc. This region of the Lagoon always shows up a treat in Ha.

Cheers

Steve

[Paul Haese]

Yep, I like this too. I really like the almost marble appearance of the detail. Very nice detailing and not looking over processed. Sweet image.

[multiweb]

Thanks mate. Yeah, that'd be a real cool mosaic. Might do another panel at the bottom. :thumbsup:


Thanks Ray. Glad you like it. :thumbsup: I didn't expect the field to look that good. When the first sub got in I was pretty freaking happy.


Thanks Steve. :thumbsup: Yeah it's a really cool area. Easy to spot too.



Thanks Paul. :thumbsup: Contrast suffered a little with the clouds. I will revisit and improving guiding with the AO this time should give me access to the next level of features on all those ridges.

[multiweb]

Thanks mate. :thumbsup: Like this? 10" RC? :confuse3:Great ROI. I need to find some stickers now before listing on the classified. ;)

[topheart]

The Hourglass in an hour!

Good stuff Marc!!

In spite of the obstacles, you achieved very good detail in the data!

Cheers,
Tim

[multiweb]

Thanks Tim. :thumbsup: Yeah pretty happy with it. Looking forward to more clear nights now.

[RickS]

Great detail, Marc :thumbsup:

[multiweb]

Thanks mate. :thumbsup: Good seeing helped and it's bright.