AP140EDF first light - the SMC

[RickS]

With my camera finally repaired I headed down to dark skies at Glen Aplin last weekend with the AP140 (Greg Bradley's "old" scope) for its first outing. My target for the weekend was the SMC which is presented here in LRGB. I also collected some Ha and Oiii and will be producing a RGB/NB blend some time soonish.

We had clear skies but there was a lot of moisture in the air and the seeing was pretty awful a lot of the time. Despite this the scope performed brilliantly and I'm very happy with the result. Perhaps a slight amount of tilt to be tweaked out...

Scope: AP140EDF = 771mm FL, Atlas focuser
Mount: AP900
Camera: U16M
Filters: Astrodon E series Gen 2 LRGB
Guiding: Lodestar / Borg 50mm guide scope
Image scale: 2.41 arcsec/pixel (drizzled to about 1.8 arcsec/pixel)
Exposures: 21x600s L, 6x900s R, 6x900s G, 6x900s G
Processing: PixInsight 1.8

The IIS image compression really kills this image so please take a look at the Astrobin version, preferably at high res!

http://www.astrobin.com/full/211572/0/

Constructive comments are always appreciated :)

Cheers,
Rick.

[topheart]

Majestic !

Very well done, Rick.

Thanks,
Tim

[gregbradley]

Classic AP look, tiny grains of sand type stars. Fabulous.

Greg.

[Tony_]

Superb image Rick! Great resolution of the stars.

[RickS]

Thanks, Tim!



It's a fantastic scope, thanks Greg! I'd love to get the dedicated flattener and a *really* big sensor.

[RickS]

Thanks, Tony.

[strongmanmike]

He, he, he...yeah baby, pretty good huh? ;)

The very small amount of tilt evident lower right in the full res shot is pretty inconsequential mate :thumbsup:

Mike

[Atmos]

That's fantastic, totally agree with Greg... So many incredibly small tiny dots!

[Paul Haese]

Crap load of stars there Rick. Nicely resolved too. I like the star colours but I reckon it could do with some more contrast enhancement to make the nebulae more prominent. I think it is hard to see the nebulae. Then again there are a heap of stars. :)

[gregbradley]

It's a fantastic scope, thanks Greg! I'd love to get the dedicated flattener and a *really* big sensor.[/QUOTE]

They come up on Astromart every now and then. Keep an eye out for one.

Yes the 50100 perhaps? I don't think 10-12 electron read noise is a big deal on a widefield scope. No worse than the KAI11002.

Greg.

[Spookyer]

Great starter Rick for the new scope.

[Slawomir]

Very nice image Rick, I will use it as a reference when planning my next target - one of those regions with nebulosities within the SMC.

I will be certainly looking forward to your new images taken with this great telescope.

[RickS]

Thanks, Mike. Yep, the scope is a keeper :lol:



Thanks, Colin.



Thanks, Paul. I agree but I'm going to concentrate on bringing out the nebulosity in the HaOiiiRGB version. I did a quick & dirty version already and it shows the SMC in a very different light (was that a terrible pun?)



I try to keep away from Astromart but that's a good idea, thanks Greg. The 50100 would be a great size. Might have to start saving my US dollars.



Ta, Brett.



Thanks, Suavi! Have you seen the Clouds of Magellan web site? It's a good resource for cloud imaging.

http://cloudsofmagellan.net.au/

Cheers,
Rick.

[Paul Haese]

Ah cool, I will look forward to it Rick. :thumbsup:

[marc4darkskies]

A gorgeous image Rick! :thumbsup::thumbsup: Love the framing, love the colours and love the natural look. Look forward to seeing a (restrained) NB enhanced version! :)

[RickS]

Thanks, Marcus! I'll try not to go too overboard with the NB ;)

[DJT]

Great first light! Enjoy the scope and also looking forward to the NB image. SMC is a very nice area to play in.

[RickS]

Thanks, David!

[Stevec35]

Nicely done as expected Rick. The colour looks spot on. Many SMC shots have the nebulae far too red.

Cheers

Steve

[Octane]

Superb, Rick!

Can't wait to process my one this weekend. :D

H

[RickS]

Thanks, Steve.



Ta, H. Look forward to your mosaic!

[ozstronomer]

Beautiful image Rick, love the small stars.:thumbsup:

Looks like that Scope/Camera combo will produce some wonderful images.

Will be interested to see how the NB adds to the overall image

Cheers Geoff

[Rex]

Wholly dooly, there be some stars in that one Rick. Nicely resolved.

[RickS]

Ta, Geoff! Working on the NB combo now.



Thanks, Rex! The resolution is all down to the gear :thumbsup:

[Geoff45]

Beaut image Rick. I like the colour in the nebulosity--really varied from nebula to nebula. You must be pretty happy with the new gear. What's your next purchase?

[Ryderscope]

SMC is clearly popular this time of year. A great image with lots of depth. Thanks for posting Rick.

[RobF]

Glad to hear you scored clear skies for the first major outing Rick.
Great image. The beast is alive!

[RickS]

Thanks, Geoff! No purchases planned but a bigger sensor would be nice :question:



Thanks, Rodney!



Yes, we had a bit of luck with the weather, thanks Rob. The NB blend is coming up nicely. Hope to finish it off this weekend.

[RickS]

New HaOiiiLRGB version here: http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=138788

Cheers,
Rick.

[silv]

beautiful - especially with them tiny sand dust stars.

but - I can"t believe it... had you made the LMC your target instead of SMC,
you might have had caught that black hole merger only a day before the BIG BAM.... bugger!

[RickS]

Thanks! I took this a little while back, before the LMC was well positioned for imaging. I would like to do a nice mosaic of the LMC but getting enough data will be a struggle.

[tilbrook@rbe.ne]

Superb detail Rick!

Just been playing around with my SMC mosaic from 2013, good to compare.

Cheers,

Justin.

[RickS]

Thanks, Justin. Are you doing a repro? It's interesting to see what you can squeeze out of the data a couple of years later!

[tilbrook@rbe.ne]

Yes, trying to get more out in a repro, difficult to balance the background in 27 panels, shall post later.

Cheers,

Justin.