Knights season

[Paul Haese]

Looks like a few horse heads are making their way onto the forums. I'll add to that.

Some comments about the image. I have had some issues with my camera. Not sure why yet but getting what looks like fogging in my lum and colour subs. It's led to some frustration in getting this image completed (for want of a better word). The detail is lacking in this image but it will have to wait until next season before I can get the data I want for detail. I have taken about 55 hours of data but only used 24 hours in this image due to fogging. I have done a fair bit of sharpening to combat the fogging, but got a fairly reasonable result I think.

On the plus side I used Alnitak as my AO guide star. It was interesting to watch it dancing around at 7hz. That speed certainly helped in the scheme of things, though I am sure I could run the AO much faster.

The image contains Luminance, Ha and RGB data.

Click here (http://paulhaese.net/HorseHeadRC12.html) for larger resolution image.

[Somnium]

lovely image Paul. i particularly like the detail you brought out in the reflection nebula. well done

[Atmos]

Nice horse there Paul, great resolution and detail that you have brought out, even with all of the fogging plaguing you.

[gvanhau]

Very nice detail in the Horse, I like those thin dark philaments.
Do you really think you can get more out of it?

Geert

[Peter Ward]

A great result.....and....Holy mole'......55 hours of data!?! :eyepop:

I hope my RC will get similar airtime :prey:

[multiweb]

Still an exceptional picture. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

Fogging might be related to ambient heat with sensor differential and abrupt cooling/heating cycling. How do you guys image in this heat anyway? It's hard on the gear and the user :)

[Placidus]

A lovely shot, Paul, and very productive for this time of year.

First impact of the colour is exceedingly pleasing. Then one notices the fine detail like the unicorn-horn on the beast's nose is very sharp - the AO is doing something. And finally the subtle dark features are there despite good contrast generally.

Lovely work.
Best,
M & T

[marc4darkskies]

More than reasonable Paul - a lovely result! :thumbsup:

[Rigel003]

Very nice Paul. The size and composition reminds me so vividly of the classic Palomar photos I used to see when I was young.

[graham.hobart]

:thumbsup:cool Paul as always!:thumbsup:

[telecasterguru]

Nice.

[gregbradley]

A very good Horsehead Paul.

I admire your dedication.

Greg.

[alpal]

That's a great result Paul

cheers
Allan

[Stevec35]

That's a very good horse head Paul. I love the nice golden hue of the stars.

Cheers

Steve

[Slawomir]

Very nice image Paul. I particularly like the colours, and as Greg mentioned, I also admire your dedication.

[Shiraz]

very attractive image Paul - technically spot on as well with high resolution and great colour. Hope you sort out the camera soon.

[astronobob]

Always a privilege to see your work Paul, such great clarity etc etc even when its 'as you say' - lacking detail' in your standards, I personally cant notice it.
Thanx for showing and sharing your work :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[topheart]

A very pleasing horsehead Paul!

Good luck with the camera fogging issue.

Cheers,
Tim

[Fabiomax]

Hi Paul,
The image is beautiful, but to me surprising details that are there!.
Cheers,
Fabiomax

[Paul Haese]

Thanks everyone for taking the time to comment. I appreciate the thoughts and the effort.



Thanks Geert, yes I think I can get more detail. Not so much in the head but in the darker sections which have typically more detail. Rolf Olson's, Ken Crawford's and more recently Peter's images typically show this detail. This is being fogged out by in my images. SBIG thinks it might be the heater not working properly which is causing the fogging. Something I need to check on my next night down at the observatories.



Thanks Peter, I would not normally have taken this much data on the this particular object but have had to sort through subs that show any the tiniest hint of fogging and ditch those. Even still there are subs that must still have fogging. Its been a battle of attrition.




Thanks Marc. SBIG think similarly, that the heater on the sensor window is either dislodged, not connect properly or not function properly. The heat is not so bad. We have been getting night temps at Clayton around the low to mid 20's for the last month or so. The delta on the camera is very good and it can hold -30C with only 55% power. The QSI on the other hand struggles a bit with the warmer weather.



Thanks MnT, actually this time of the year in SA is usually pretty good with quite a few clear nights. The drier conditions tend to work in our favour unlike on the eastern side of the continent where humidity seems to go up quite a lot during this time.

I agree the AO is working well and I suspect I could have gone faster to produce sharper results. Alnitak is such a bright star. I might do some experimenting to see what sort of results I can get.



Thanks Greg, but its more like perseverance in reality. Limping to the line.

[multiweb]

Fair enough. I forgot you're remote. You can just open and close the roof at will when it's cooler at night.

re-cycling I was mentioning the extreme temp differential because I had similar fogging issues with a QHY8 and always in summer. Every time it was because I had to power the camera off for some reason and then repower it afterwards. It would fog pretty much straight away. I reckon the sensor/cold finger goes back to ambient too rapidly which might be in the high 20s in summer so you get condensation on the cold finger then when cooled again the dew spot would always start at the center of the sensor which I assume is the bit that gets colder the last. Then the dew spot grows until it covers pretty much all the sensor. Looks like vignetting or a bad flat fielding. In the worst cases the edges of the sensor started icing up and I had icicles creeping towards the center like little branches. The QHY8 was not regulated. So it's all or nothing cooling wise. I had one similar issue with the QHY9 which has a separate chamber for the sensor and it's argon purged. Again cycling too fast in hot ambient temperature caused a dew spot in the middle of the sensor. Ramping up the cooling/warming sorted out the issue as if the air in the chamber needs enough time to catch up with the cold finger .

[Regulus]

That's still a decent result Paul, and the large image is a pleasure to look at.
Weird about the fogging, and given the usual culprits for 'fog', I am wondering if there is an 'air leak' that is putting warmer air near the cooled chip.
Really just thinking out loud mate, but I hope you get it resolved soon.

Trev

[RickS]

Very nice HH, Paul. I especially like the colours.

[SpaceNoob]

+1, that reflection nebula looks pretty awesome.