Omega Centauri test shot

[john_drummond]

Hi all,

thanks for all the positive comments re 'Newbie from NZ' (and cheers Gary and Rob).

Last night I tried to get my 16" Meade SF Newt more properly polar alligned. I haven't done it for about 3 years and knew it needed improvement. It's such a heavy scope/mount that I had ignored the problem. However, after my 'frog's legs' day I made a devise to finely adjust the mount up or down in relation to the SCP. Using K3CCD software and a webcam I realised that the mount was pointing about 1 degree above the SCP. Before the modification there was a drift of an eastern equatorial star of 110" of arc in 5 minutes. After the 'attack' this is now 3" in five minutes...

I decided to try a test image in the full Moon and shot Omega Centauri. It is attached (Gary and Rob, I dare not send it to NZ Astronomers after our Omage Cen verses 47 Tuc debate!). I think I overprocessed it a bit too much (see March 2005 S&T (US) page 130 - Matt BenDaniel's quote)...

<Old timer, eh? Glad you made it to the boards!
<Now start posting and making yourself useful, soldier! [/B]

Cheers.

John Drummond
Gisborne, New Zealand
E 178* 03', S 38* 40'
email: john_drummond@xtra.co.nz
website: http://www.possumobservatory.co.nz :astron:

[gbeal]

JD,
you need to crawl into your scope more often.
I reckon you are a bit of a whimp, not wanting to stir up this old debate, do it.
I always voted for Omega, and this only adds fuel to that debate. Well done.
Gary

[ving]

great pic! and you might be right about the processing...

whats this debate tho? I am intrigued! :confuse:

[Starkler]

Its lovely shots like these that make me not want to bother with astrophotography. All the hard work gets done by other people and I get to enjoy them :D

Well done :thumbsup:

[Striker]

Looks good to me John......nice job..

[rumples riot]

Very nice Omega. Really well composed. Love to see omega in the DSO section. Good stuff.

[john_drummond]

Hi all,

the 'debate' has been brewing here in NZ for five years now. It began when I and a well-known Auckland astronomer began discussing which the best glob was. Needless to say it slowly gathered momentum like a giant snowball and ended in a very lively avalanch of postings and rantings! The pimple popped about 1 month ago - no one got smoothered but it was fun...

Cheers

John

:cheers:

[slice of heaven]

How about a new thread with a poll?
Omega v 47 Tuc

My opinion : Omega seems to have more depth.

Slice

[iceman]

Very nice John. However it's over the 60k limit, can you please repost as a smaller size, or have a smaller one with a link to an offsite bigger version.

Thanks

oh and NGC5139 is clearly the best globular :)

[Dave47tuc]

Now guy's,
(oh nice shot John:D )

Look through a 18" or bigger and you will know 47 is best.

But that's me:whistle:

[CometGuy]

Thats a wonderful shot John, the scope renovation has paid off!

As for overprocessing well thats just a matter of opinion :). I myself like to push as much detail as I can out of images and in some instances 'overprocess' as in a recent shot of the Vela SNR and Barnards loop (some have told me so!).

Also, some people like black backgrounds, others like a slight neutral grey blue background, etc, and its all a matter of taste IMHO.

Terry

[john_drummond]

Yes, sound's like an interesting idea. I would be keen to see who likes what glob the best...

Sorry Iceman for the large image - I guess my inexperience on this site is showing.

Cheers

John

:P

[Exfso]

That is one beautiful shot. I want a nice digital SLR Please..

:astron:

[Rodstar]

Beautiful shot John. I showed it to my wife I was so enthusiastic...alas, she has no taste and just "Humphed".

Keep up the great work.

Rodstar