SMC HOO most horrid conditions

[Atmos]

Shot under full moon and 55km/h winds this is a Ha OIII rendition of the SMC. Couldn't think of anything worse conditions outside of clouds and rain :lol:

900s unguided exposures, FWHM on exposures were truly horrible. 5" on Ha and 6" on OIII although there is only so much that can be done under strong winds.

[strongmanmike]

Excellent Col, came out a treat, the SMC is pretty boring until you whack on the Ha/OIII filters, then a maelstrom of bubbles appears :thumbsup:

If the wind is strong and gusty but consistently blowing around, the guiding errors can even out pretty well. The details will be blurred a little of course but after stacking and averaging it can look ok, like you have seen here :thumbsup: Back in 2008, I shot the Witchhead from Wiruna, with my AP152EDF on the NJP mount (https://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/81003751/original), in seriously, ridiculously howling winds and couldn't believe the image (https://pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/104169333/original) I managed to salvage none the less :eyepop:...it just didn't make sense...:shrug::question:

Mike

[ChrisV]

Very nice Colin. Maybe the wind blew all the gunge out of your Melbourne air. Compensation for the wind?

[Atmos]

The SMC really pops with narrowband. A few years ago I did a 15 panel 21 hour mosaic in RGB and the stars really came out but the nebulosity didn’t so much.

If i was working a wider image scale I’d have been fine. I’m planning a 2.6”/pixe wide field setup which will be able to image under any wind conditions that don’t physically knock the tripod over :lol:



It was a northerly so it was just blowing NSW air down to Melbourne, not what we want ;)

[h0ughy]

I like the results. Great that you hi OT what you did

[vlazg]

A good result Col, I would love to have a go but its a bit low in the sky for me.
Keep blowing Northerlies, we dont want southern air up here.



:windy:

[tornado33]

Looks great. Nicely done.

[Placidus]

So much to see in there. Like a bag of strawberries and rhaspberries and cherries.

We can't observe if the wind is much over 40 KPH. A quick test is if my hat gets blown off as I'm unlocking the observatory, it's no go.

Very successful despite the elements.