Hourglass close-up

[Placidus]

In our recent 17 hour SHO lagoon, the Hourglass was slightly burned out. Last night, waiting for our main target to come up, we did 3 x 10 min subs in each channel, and processed to show maximum detail in the tiny hourglass.

Processing: Median combine, zero point to foothill of histogram, rough colour balance, separate into stars and starless background, working starless make background colour neutral, wavelet sharpen, add back H-alpha stars as white. All in GoodLook 64 :).

Here is a tight crop (0.55 sec arc/pixel) around the Hourglass.

Best,
MnT

[Stevec35]

Looks good to me guys

Cheers

Steve

[Atmos]

You mean the hour glass isn't supposed to be pure white? ;)

Nicely done MnT :-)

[Paul Haese]

Now that's close. Aperture rules here. Detail is nice MnT.

[Placidus]

Cheers, Colin! The SHO colours seem to be in the same place as in the Hubble shot, which is gratifying.



Thanks, Paul. Tempting to try dropping this tiny hourglass over the top of the burned out 17 hour lagoon version.

[gregbradley]

That's really nice there Mike. Aperture rules eh?

Greg.

[strongmanmike]

Weeeelll...not bad...I would be keen to see even more detail from a1/2 metre mirror :confuse3:..Hmmm? Any chance you might try a comercial image processing package..?? :)

Mike

[Placidus]

Thank Greg. At least as Colin said, it's not all white.



Hi, Mike. You are right that it could be yet better. Love to blame it on the processing, but ordinary seeing (4.2 pixels or 2.3 sec arc FWHM), inexpert collimation, and only 3 subs are probably also in there. We checked the collimation and the secondary tilt is right, but we probably need to do something about the primary-to-secondary spacing. The best thing would be to pick a better night.

Your ultra-close-up, and Rick Stevenson's shot, both show more detail. I was impressed by your observation that the little star just next to the hourglass is actually a double. I thought I saw it as a double very clearly at one point during processing the H-alpha, and thought that it was an artifact. On further examination, I think what I was seeing was a tiny patch of nebulosity between the star and the hourglass. So something different to what you saw.

Here is a rather over-roasted, wormy, attempt to wring out the very last drops to see what might be there in the H-alpha.

Anyone know of other good non-burned-out amateur hourglasses?

[topheart]

Good shot - close up and personal for sure!
Cheers,
Tim

[Flugel88]

Really nice to see an hourglass not to burnt out some nice detail in there given the scale. Seeing is a real drag of late averaging 3.5 to 4.5 at my place near newcastle.

[Placidus]

Thanks muchly Tim and Michael.

Had a go at combining this version (with Hourglass not burned out) with the 17 hour deep version that shows faint outer features. Just can't be done. Hourglass, outer features, overall relationship: pick any two.

[multiweb]

Looks great Mike. Some serious image scale. Really nice details in the hour glass. Goodlook rocks. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[RickS]

Looks good, M&T... even the colours, despite my usual dislike of green :)

[multiweb]

Told ya!...

[Placidus]

Thanks muchly, Marc. Good to hear from you!



Thanks, Rick. Struggled to bring out much SII. It's just possible that some cloud came through during the SII shots.

[Placidus]

:rofl: