half a silver dollar...

[alocky]

Although it's not quite as spectaular as Peter's stunning resolution image, here's 3.5 hours of LRGB (5 minute subs) through a 1500mm f3.6 scope with small pixels (QSI683). I suspect a large amount of the difference in the two images is due to seeing conditions and processing expertise though, so I don't think it's fair to draw too many conclusions!

[Peter Ward]

Well, I like it....plus 1500mm isn't exactly short :)

Pretty darn good by any measure :thumbsup:

P.S.
16.4" F3.6? . ...aye carrumba...a serious instrument!

[Atmos]

Doesn't quite have the same sharpness and contrast as Peters (its amazing) but having briefly shot this under good seeing and more so under bad seeing... Even with my tiny 677mm F/5.2 refractor, a little bit of good seeing is better than a lot of not so good. It is a large galaxy and seeing is your worst enemy!

[alocky]

cheers Peter:thumbsup: I think all joking aside, large aperture = smaller airy discs and the mount is probably the most important element in the system. I've got a way to go to pull the resolution you're getting with that RC, although in theory my spot size is only 3 microns out on the edge of the 8083 chip.



Thanks Colin, I'm still having plenty of technical issues at the moment though, so in principle there's room for improvement!

[Placidus]

Bravo! Beautiful colour and processing. Would love to see a link to the full size image. Well done!

[gregbradley]

Not long ago this would be a standout image, the vertical plumes are shown well and its full of detail. Standards around here are very high. Nice work.


Greg.

[Slawomir]

Splendid result Andrew :thumbsup:

I'm sure the image looks even better in full res.

[DaveNZ]

Wonderful image with nice detail. The seeing doesn't look to bad to me.

[RickS]

Looks very promising, Andrew!

[multiweb]

Well that looks great already. Top shot. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[willik]

Very nice image Andrew good detail
Martin

[strongmanmike]

Quite a nice shot Andrew, there looks to be little difference in feature differentiation. Seeing not withstanding, it is all in the processing here I recon :)...I think once you have honed yourself and that scope in and your conditions cooperate, you will salivate :thumbsup:

Mike

[atalas]

It's a great shot Andrew!well done :thumbsup:

[Prickly]

Andrew

Awesome photo. Look forward to seeing more!

Must be some setup you have there. What is the scope mounted on?

Cheers
David (spud)

[alocky]

Thanks Mike and Trish - the colour was done using the new pixinisght photometric colour balance tool, so I can't take much credit for that as it's an idiot proof process. I'm hoping to get enough data tonight to drizzle integrate and reprocess, so I'll put up the link to the result of that!


Thanks Greg - until Peter posted his I was feeling very pleased with myself :)

That's only one night cut short by clouds. Same happened last night, and tonight there's a thick layer of smoke from the burnoffs in the hills. Then the weather forecast tells me the clouds will be back for another week :( so I was hoping for a 'big data' tour de force so I had enough frames to drizzle, but this may well be all I get this year.


Thanks DAve - I can only go by the guider error - that night was ~0.3 pix rms, and I've seen it drop to .1 on a really good night. These pixels are about 2" sec.

Thanks Rick - I'm still paying for this scope weather wise 4 months after getting it! It's been the worst winter I can remember for clear nights.


Thanks - it's probably as good as it's going to get!


Thanks Martin.

Thanks Mike - I'm in fairly heavy light pollution, and I thought the faster scope will get a smoother capture of the background noise and make it easier to subtract. Haven't really had a chance to test my theory yet! But I hope you're right, as the learning is half the fun.


Cheers and thanks!

Hi David - it's an ASA 16" mounted on a DDM85, so I can't blame the hardware! Although I had some trials getting the mount 100%, it is an extraordinary piece of gear.

[rustigsmed]

Great work Andrew awesome rendition

[markas]

A fine image, Andrew.

Mark

[alocky]

Thanks guys!
Here's a link to the full resolution on astrobin
http://www.astrobin.com/312877/B/

[Moonman]

Nice colour and spatial detail!

[MortonH]

Looks pretty awesome to me!