A Centaur horsing around

[Peter Ward]

Well, here is my current take on what seems to be the subject of the month.

Cent A.

I was pleased to see some of the faint outer shell structures emerge from the data.

During the capture I also noticed on a night of reasonable seeing that the Alluna's collimation was a tad out...which was promptly fixed. I have to say I am now very pleased with the RC's data.

Some mild decon was applied to give the image some extra snap, which I'm sure will be noticed by those who like to examine the data under a microscope :)

Now all I need is some colour data to put this 2017 version away.

Hope you like the progress so far (http://www.atscope.com.au/BRO/gallery394.html).

[Stevec35]

Well you're raising the bar again Peter. That Alluna is some scope but I think there is a certain amount of user skill involved too.

Cheers

Steve

[Octane]

That is going to be an absolute corker once completed. :O

H

[el_draco]

Beautiful job. Cant wait to see the final version.

[Martin Pugh]

You can always tell quality optics, combined with precise focus, and no doubt use of an AOX.

Very detailed, very nice.

cheers
Martin

[leon]

Certainty impressive work Peter, love it.

Leon

[marc4darkskies]

Yep, I'd expect 19 hrs of Lum to do the trick! Sure looks like a great start there Peter! Very nice! :thumbsup:

Can't tell whether the crispness is a result of the down scaling or the decon though :question:.

[Atmos]

Fantastic Peter! That RC certainly produces good results.

[cometcatcher]

That's a seriously sharp image! Curious minds wonder what it's like without the AO-X and decon? :question:

[Peter Ward]

Thanks...I consider myself very fortunate to be able to use such great scope. It just works.



Ta Marcus...the sharpness is a bit of both ;) I had high hopes for more colour data tonight....:lol: :cloudy:



Thanks Leon...it's getting there, but I figured I needed a reality check before I pushed further, hence my putting the L data up on the web to get some feedback.



Thanks Martin...indeed the AOX pulls in the data well. Pristine stars at 3300mm FL are otherwise a tad more of a challenge !





Thanks guys... the forecast will give me a chance to tinker with the colour data gathered so far (only about 5 hours worth all up)



Ta Steve. With the volume of data so far (77 x 15 minute subs) I'm warming to Pixinsight's handling of registration and stacking. Well worth the pain of getting to know PI's quirky interface. :thumbsup:

[gregbradley]

That's very good Peter nice and sharp.

Glad to see the shell structure. I noticed that was showing in my image as well but it made me wonder if was a processing artefact. Obviously its real.

Greg.

[alpal]

Hi Peter,
what a tack sharp image.
The AO on such a premium scope really makes such a difference.

cheers
Allan

[Peter Ward]

Ta. AO certainly helps, but I look at high resolution images as a suite of incremental steps you can take to improve images. Thermal control is also high on my list.



Thanks Greg, yes I wondered the same thing...particularly due the fact I image from light pollution central.... hence accurate sky-flats are a must for me.

[Placidus]

An excellent image, Peter. Lovely to see the overlapping ring structures starting to emerge. They are very, very difficult. Also lots of distant galaxies.

[Peter Ward]

Thanks M&T...I'm finding it very hard these days to compensate for the gigawatts of light spill into Sydney skies....anyway...as a glutton for punishment

Now in Colour (http://www.atscope.com.au/BRO/gallery394.html) (same URL)

I would have liked much more colour data...but hey, with the new moon, predictably comes some rain.

What was the surprise was in the h-alpha data....lots of cool regions popped up as a result :)

[topheart]

Fantabulous colour result Peter!!
Congratulations!
Tim

[alpal]

Nice pic in colour Peter.
It looks so natural & those red areas of Ha have really made it interesting.

cheers
Allan

[oernulfs]

Nothing more to say but amazing :thumbsup:

[IanP]

Superlative photo ... :2thumbs:

[Peter Ward]

Thanks guys...but I think it still needs some work.

Got some weird shaped stars with the green data, hence there is some fringing in places. Plus in my exuberance to extract fine dust-lane details I also extracted a good deal of noise.

That said, still very happy to have persisted with the h-alpha data....soda without a twist would have been boring :)

[beren]

:eyepop: awesome , very impressive........Peter in your opinion is pixinsight worth learning over PS ( just started/struggling with it)

[Peter Ward]

Interesting question. Photoshop is unsurpassed for tweaking the final look of an image, but Pixinsight's tools are brilliant for getting the fundamentals right
to get your image to that point:

Tools that I find PI excels at are:

Image registration, image integration, masked stretching and dynamic background extraction.....and well worth learning. :thumbsup:

[markas]

Splendid image, Peter. Spectacular detail!

Mark

[cazza132]

Wow! Insane! You have picked up the elongated outer overall disk shape. And some bangin details with the band (ha to boot) on the opposite tack. Well done! What gear did you use?

[FranckiM06]

Wow :eyepop:, it is excellent result. Wonderful image.
Congratulation about this great shot.:thumbsup:
Franck

[Peter Ward]

Thanks for the feedback


Ta Troy...scroll down the linked page...all the Toyota/Wild Turkey/Cash for comment links :) on the gear I use are all there.



Glad you enjoyed the view....I'm just in the process of a total re-pro to settle down the noise and sort out the less than perfect star colour-registration. I'll publish the changes in due course
:thumbsup:

[Andy01]

Lovely view of this classic target Peter, tack sharp and clear as always.
Star colours look a bit desaturated though on my screen?
I have no idea how you do such great LRGB imaging from the 'burbs, hat's off to you! :)