Eagle Pillars and HiRes cores of Triffid, Lagoon and Swan nebs.

[John Hothersall]

SPX350 F9.1, ASI290 Binx2 0.38"/pixel, Baader RGB, Astronomik UHC.

I spent May to Aug imaging these waiting for the best seeing which I managed to find eventually for these nebulas. Exposures are from 2-3 secs with no calibration.

I have comparisons of detail with HST. HST images had to be reduced drastically to match my puny focal length, but it is just for fun.

Regards, John.

[multiweb]

That's uber cool John. Lovely close ups! :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[that_guy]

WOW! These are fantastic! Makes you wonder if you can do narrowband imaging with these cameras and one up the HST :P

[RickS]

Very nice, John. Best amateur shot I have seen of the jets in M20.

[gregbradley]

That is amazing resolution John. This new lucky seeing imaging approach really is paying dividends.

Greg.

[Atmos]

Incredible resolution John!
I’ve managed close to your Pillars but it’s that final hard contrast and resolution that has escaped me.

[Bart]

Those are very awesome! Well done!:cool:

[Andy01]

Wow! Just wow... top shelf stuff that is ! :thumbsup:

[billdan]

Excellent images there John, and to think only 2 or 3 secs subs.
:thumbsup:

[SimmoW]

Great to see, nice images John! I'm convinced such lucky imaging will become more popular and successful. I have loaned out my asi224 to a friend but once I get her back and the adapter I need arrives, I'll be doing some LI myself.

Can you tell us the exposure details, e.g. number of subs and gain?

[cometcatcher]

Those are awesome!

[John Hothersall]

Thanks everyone for kind comments.



Yes Greg, the pillars I spent the most time on with over 5200 2.5sec exposures in good seeing. Registax would include plenty of poor images amongst the best so I went through it by hand stacking nearly 2500 sharp subs, it took several hours - very boring.



Resolution is really down to seeing, I spent many nights and threw away hours of images once better seeing came along which it eventually did.

In PShop I use Image-Adjustments-Shadow/Highlights which really lifts the dark detail more than the bright detail and there is a contrast slider, if your image is not too noisy it gives good results using layer opacity slider to suit. ASI cameras do have low noise.



Yes the exposures may vary from 2.5 to 3 secs gain full depending on the breeze except for M8 which is much brighter at 1 sec exposure. With Triffid bright stars I used a half sec exposure and a 100 each RGB.

M8 UHC-1000x1sec RGB-450/225/225x1sec.
M16 UHC-2490x2.5sec RGB-120eachx2.5sec.
M17 UHC-2390x2sec RGB-150eachx2sec.
M20 UHC-2550x2.5sec RGB-110eachx2.5sec.

I collected many more to get the finished image but had to exclude the breeze damaged images as well as the poor seeing images.

Regards, John.

[Placidus]

Astonishing sharpness-resolution-detail. Just breathtaking. And beautiful, too.

Does your camera have an electronic shutter? We'd wear ours out doing that. How long does an image take to download? The 0.34" arc resolution - is that at 1x1, meaning 0.67" arc binned, or is it actually 0.34" arc binned, meaning native 0.17" unbinned?

You mentioned waiting for the best seeing - we understand that means selecting the very best frames. Does it also mean only photographing near the meridian, or waiting for exceptional weather, poring over jet stream predictions, etc?

Did you use adaptive optics as well? If not, would it help?

What was the FWHM in the very best frames?

Unbelievable work. We're thinking of selling the scope and using our observatory to store farm chemicals.

Very best,
Mike and Trish

[markas]

Spectacular resolution and really nice colour rendition:thumbsup::thumbsup:
Mark

[Stevec35]

Very nice job on all of these John, particularly the Trifid.

Steve

[miki63au]

Stunning:eyepop:



Mick

[John Hothersall]

Yes the ASI290 cmos has an electronic shutter and is really a planetary camera and can do several hundred images a second in an avi or ser file. I was trying it out on bright planetary nebs and the brighter emission nebs.

The scope is a 14" newtonian with 2xPowermate imaging at 3200mm. The image is 16bit binnedx2 at 0.38"/pixel or 0.19"/pixel with no binning, binning is way less noisy and suits the good seeing better. Full res needs the very best seeing to work. Cmos has 2.9micron pixels 1936x1048 pixels.

Seeing wa near 2" or 1.7" at best which for me is very good, objects were all inaged close to overhead moving way past often. I use CalSky seeing forecast.

Adaptive optics is only a guiding assist. I collect several thousand 2-3sec exposures and select them manually, choosing the only very sharpest before averaging, for the eagle 40% were used. If I had and Obsy that would be way better at cutting the airy breeze.

Regards, John.

[Paul Haese]

A sweet Eagle there John. I compared it with mine from a few years ago and I have to say yours is larger and I think a little sharper than mine and I was really stoked with mine at the time. The detail on the Trifid jets is also nice too.

All nice images and very cool for lucky imaging.:thumbsup:

[alpal]

Hi John,
fantastic images using lucky imaging.
I hope more people follow your lead.



cheers
Allan

[gb44]

Hi John
Very inspiring stuff, well done.
The PS tip is especially amazing and already being put to good use!

I would like to see what you could do with the Homunculus - Eta carina.
GlennB

[alpal]

John already did that with amazing results:
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=165570&page=2


cheers
Allan

[multiweb]

That sounds like a mammoth effort. I see you've been at it for a while perfecting the technique with your shots. Did you have better seeing in the UK? More elevation where you were? When it was clear that is ;)

[John Hothersall]

Well Marc back in UK Sagittarius creeps at 10-15 degrees above South horizon, while the Eagle and Swan get to 20-25 degrees above roofs which leak a lot of heat away.

Seeing and clear nights are pretty similar except the UK has Astronomical Twilight all through June and July where limited imaging between midnight and 3 am can take place. But in AU seeing these overhead as well as Sag/Sco Milkyway is amazing to a UK expat.

Regards.

[multiweb]

Yep I realise those particular targets are low from the UK but I was more thinking as in general seeing for targets up ahead such as andromeda, Cassiopea, M51, etc... There's a bit of elevation in places in Scotland and northern UK. I thought that for sure they'd get better seeing than here. We're all at sea level pretty much. Sky is dark alright though and transparency pretty good too.

[Stonius]

I didn't realise you could image this way. I'm blown away. Incredible work. Thanks for pushing the envelope and showing us what can be done!

Markus

[John Hothersall]

Yes seeing is pretty similar, but good seeing is usually more consistent along the South England coast where weather is better, there are no high places for astronomers really. M31 can be seen with just 2 min dark adaptation. The Veil nebula looks like a photograph in the eyepiece of my 14".

Cygnus is the best Milkyway in UK which through binocs is amazing with Scutum cloud easily seen low down, but in AU Sag/Sco is way way better through binocs for shear size and brightness quite staggering for us in the NHemisphere.

In UK Cygnus, Cassiopeia, Cepheus nebs are overhead in Summer and Autumn. Auriga nebs, Rosette, Christmas Tree, Northern Orion nebs available in Winter. So we don't have it too bad in Northern hemisphere. AU just has lots of big bright shapely nebs.

Regards.

[multiweb]

Yeah I remember the triangle the three bright stars in cygnus up ahead in summer. Haven't seen the W of cassiopea in a while too. Nothing like here though. First time I saw the milkyway in winter here I thought that is a milkyway!