The Trapezium

[strongmanmike]

Seeing was good again, FWHM (per MaximDL) 1.5" - 1.7", on Tues morning, so I did a quick filler image (only 21min worth) of the very centre off the Orion Nebula, in between imaging projects. :thumbsup:, I only have 1120mm FL to work with but it came out ok I think :confuse3: I picked up the six main stars, clearly separated, plus a couple more faint stars, inside the trapezium itself :)

The Trapezium (https://pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/173252056/original) of stars (and others) at the core of the Orion Nebula :thumbsup:

While I am happy with my result and just for comparison, see what (more than) twice as good seeing (FWHM = 0.75"!!) gets you with a 24 inch telescope HERE (https://www.astrobin.com/1adm0j/) :eyepop:

I pulled my first all-nighter imaging run up at Eagleview too and it was glorious to watch the dawn break... and be above the clouds! :)

Mike

[rustigsmed]

Great close up resolution Mike (and picturesque setting)! I had the 12" dob out the other night whilst imaging too - it nice checking out M42 when you haven't looked at it visually for a while - getting some subtle colours coming through is almost a shock of surprise.

Cheers

[Geoff45]

Amazing detail Mike. Nights like this don’t happen very often.

[Dave882]

Cool capture! I’ve got this in my list too. But those landscape shots are making me drool!!

[strongmanmike]

Thanks Russell



Well actually Geoff, it is turning out that this sort of seeing is common place up at Eagleview, in fact and I don't want to jinx myself, I haven't seen a poor or even average seeing night yet. I only got MaximDL recently and have only used it to measure FWHM's on five nights since start of Oct and so far, analysing non flat topped stars with profile graphs not too tall and skinny and not to broad and fat, the worst average I have measured is 2.1" with two sessions showing a FWHM average at or closer to 1.5" with MaximDL measuring 1.2" - 1.4" on the odd star ...all my visual sessions over the past 18 months have shown noticably superior seeing conditions over my last location too...so fingers crossed :prey: :thumbsup:



Thanks Dave, it was a cathartic feeling being up at the observatory as dawn broke, profound feelings of being in a bit of a dream really :)

Mike

[alpal]

Hi Mike,
that's looking great.
I compared to here:
https://skyandtelescope.org/wp-content/uploads/Trapezium-diagram-J-Lodigruss-v2.jpg

I can see all the stars:
A, B, C, D, E, F, G and I.
H2 and H1 are there but not separated -
their gap is 1.6 arc seconds.
You would probably need to use video and lucky imaging to separate them.

cheers
Allan

[Startrek]

Mike,
Spectacular photos , man what a view !!!
Oh also nicely resolved Trap too
You literally must feel on top of the world right now
Cheers
Martin

[strongmanmike]

Tanks Alan, ah yes, I recall seeing that reference chart before, thanks for posting. I now realise, I didn't use any deconvolution on this image, just DDP and unsharp masking, pretty simple, to keep it natural.. but I probably should have a go and see if I can separate those two .. ? They are clearly elongated :question: they are just separated in Wolfgangs image, so considering his seeing was 0.75" it might be tough...



Thanks Martin, yes finally getting some sessions in at the new observatory has been a good feeling. Standing up on the dome deck on a clear Moonless night, perched up high like Rafiki on Simba's rock in The Lion King, while the gear inside is actually doing its thing and with the improved seeing, I can't really complain too much and I'm pretty excited to hit more targets...:) :thumbsup:

Mike