Swan, H-alpha, 30 min

[Placidus]

Our first astrophoto in almost a year after the huge rebuild and rewrite.

Big one here (https://photos.smugmug.com/Category/Star-Forming-Regions/i-k8JB9pq/0/9503e067/O/Swan%20Ha%2030%20min%20in%203x%2010 %20min%20subs.jpg)

Heavy cloud coming in fast, so just 3 x 10 min unbinned subs in H-alpha. We would normally hope for ten times that, so this a tiny bit gritty for us.

The new FLI PL16803 seems magnificent. No more "smudge to the right", and no more ghosting from the previous shot, that we used to get with the old Aspen 16803.

We've kind of forgotten how to do this. It was pretty terrifying. Very rusty on the processing. If we've made any mistakes with the processing, it's probably making the background too black to make up for the very short exposure, and perhaps slightly oversharpening because everyone else has been submitting such razor sharp stuff of late. We hope to be back to our old rhythm soon.

We've turned the swan through 90 degrees. In this pose, you can see that it is yet another phoenix, or firebird, arising from the flames, although it is easy to accidentally think it is one of those spatchcocks you get from Harris Farm.

The "cygnet", a little accompanying nebula of extreme faintness, is mostly out of frame but you can see part of it to top left. If you look very closely you'll see an adorable little fluffy head, with a pair of eyes and a cute beak, looking straight at you. If you instead see a kitten, that is understandable, but it's not, it's a cygnet.

Best,
Mike and Trish :hi:

[strongmanmike]

How good is that Pheonix :eyepop: quite striking, well spotted :thumbsup:

Welcome back into the imaging game guys....and your new administration wing is not far away either :D

Hope your experience with the new FLI is a good one :)

Mike

[Atmos]

Given the short integration it isn't too gritty but the details are showing some promise even with the low SNR.
Looking forward to the full image when it's completed.

[Placidus]

Thanks for the kind words, Mike. The extensions to the house are proceeding well, but the bathroom renovator used a leaf blower to try to clean up the concrete dust, and the house, the insides of the computers, DVD player, etc are choked with it. Much red wine opened to rinse away the pain.



Wise words, Colin. Many more hours at the helm required.

Best,
MnT

[Peter Ward]

I don't understand all this talk about Phoenix's Swans and Cygnets.

It's clearly a fish...maybe with a little sand on it. :D

Good to hear you are harvesting photons again :thumbsup:

[Slawomir]

It's awesome you are imaging again Mike and Trish :thumbsup:

We missed your images.

[Placidus]

Thanks Peter and Suavi. Means a lot.

[kosborn]

Very nice. :thumbsup: You have uploaded many encouraging posts for others. It's good to see your work after so long.

Kevin

[Andy01]

Only on the iphone but welcome back! :thumbsup:
I’m also offline imaging wise for a bit while the rig gets pimped, but hopefully not for as long as your recent hiatus - good to see you back on the imaging horse. :)

[Geoff45]

Nice one M and T. There is a lot to be said fro monochrome images--they usually look nice and contrasty.
I appreciate your comment about getting rusty with processing--I felt the same way on returning from my OS jaunt.

[Placidus]

Thanks Kevin, Andy, Geoff,

We are back up and running, albeit rather manually. Some time in the next two weeks the new focusing motor arrives. In the interim, focusing is manual, labour intensive, and only done once at the beginning of the imaging session.

We continue to be very pleased with the FLI PL16803. It is very old technology, but it is working very well.

[vlazg]

Good to see you back M&T, i can see the Phoenix, maybe an appropriate image for your return, nicely done

[Placidus]

Cheers George, that's kind.

Through a tiny scope it's an omega. Through our 16" dobsonian, it looks exactly and only like a swan. But even 30 mins of exposure changes it quite a lot.

[Ryderscope]

That’s brilliant MnT. We are very pleased to see you back up and running again (just in time for the new moon as well). Looking forward to many more.

[codemonkey]

Great stuff, guys! Welcome back :D

[Paul Haese]

Nice to see you back imaging again Mike. It must be a relief to have such equipment working as it should on every clear night now. The Sensor whilst old tech, will be flawless I am sure with the FLI. If I could have afforded one I would have gone with one of those some time ago. I look forward to your images in the near future.

[Placidus]

Rodney, Lee, Paul,

Thanks for the encouragement.

The lead time for the new focuser was 4 to 6 weeks. We're at 5 weeks now. Once it arrives and is safely installed, we can start doing some longer runs.

In the interim I've been working on the more luxurious bits of the scripting.

Best,
Mike

[gregbradley]

Great to see images from you.

The FLI PL16803 is still king of the camera world even though its now about 11-12 years old.

Greg.

[willik]

Back in the astro game good on you
Martin

[DavidTrap]

Very nice M&T,

Very happy with the FLI gear I use at the school observatory.

Looking forward to seeing more images from you again,

DT

[John K]

Hi MnT,

that's an incredible image - I really went on a viewing expedition looking at all the structure in the nebula in your image!

Clear skies.

John K.

[Ross G]

Welcome back Mike and Trish.


So sharp and so detailed...a great hint of what's to come.


Good luck with the re-birth!


Ross.

[Placidus]

Thanks so much folks for the welcome back. That is most heartening.

Yesterday heard from PlaneWave about the new focuser which we ordered a month ago after I destroyed the old one. They've just moved their small parts manufacturing plant from Los Angeles to Michigan, and are in the process of setting things up. So no timeline for when the focuser will arrive. Waaaaaah! Without it, we can focus manually, but we're too old to sit up there all night. Meanwhile I'm polishing the software. At the moment, it stands at 300 source files and over a million characters of typing.

[multiweb]

Good to see an new image from Placidus. Looks like everything is ticking right along now. :thumbsup:

[troypiggo]

Looking forward to more now :)