Preliminary Eagle

[strongmanmike]

I've been on leave and we have been travelling for most of July (QLD & VIC) and sadly I've missed many clear nights up at Eagleview :sadeyes:. So, after returning from APP in Melbourne on Sunday and for my last night at home before returning to work :sad:, I shot up the mountain :stargaze: :D

Glad I did, beautiful night despite the seven day old moon and the seeing was excellent. I managed to grab 245min of Ha on The Eagle (well, the Moon is growing, so I wanted something bright :P) before the humidity rose and some fog/low cloud decided to roll over the mountain around 1am.

Ave FWHM, manually measured across frames, as per MaximDL, of individual 5min raw subs, hovered around 1.6" the whole night, with a best of 1.4" and worst 1.8" (seems to be the normal range up there)

Looking forward to completing the whole image over winter, just thought I'd share something :)

Quick preliminary processing (Plan is to get lots more data over the coming months and No BlurEx was used ;)) M16 Ha Pillars (https://pbase.com/image/173838880/original)

Love a finer image scale :question:...have I said that already? :P

Mike

[alpal]

Looks very promising Mike.
Ha always gives such interesting detail.

I look forward to the final full colour version.


cheers
Allan

[strongmanmike]

Thanks Big Al, see how it goes, not sure if I'll do a narrowband only or LHaRGB :confuse3: don't really want to spend too much time on it, too many galaxies to image :D

Mike

[alpal]

Thanks Mike,
galaxies - which ones?

galaxies up high in July?
Just checked out Stellarium:

NGC 6744
https://www.hansonastronomy.com/ngc-6744

NGC 6902
https://astropixels.com.au/astrophotography/Spiral_Galaxy_NGC6902_and_Friends/

NGC 6845
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC_6845#/media/File:NGC6845_-_Iotw2247a.jpg

cheers
Allan

[gregbradley]

Spectacularly sharp and detailed Mike. A winner.

Greg.

[joshman]

nicely done Mika, such a good amount of detail. and nicely stretched as well. I look forward to seeing where you go with this.

[Mickoid]

Wow Mike, that's close and personal, I too will look forward to the finished product. No doubt it will be spectacular. You were keen getting out there after such a busy weekend. I grabbed a bit of Ha under the quarter moon last night on your Fighting Dragons because it was a nice clear night. Few and far between these days in Melbourne.

[ronson]

Well done for squeezing some imaging time just before going back to work. Great start and looking forward to seeing how the image evolves with more data.

[Stephane]

Mike, that’s just insanely good. Tight stars, excellent resolution producing phenomenal Hubble like detail. What’s not to like? Looking forward to seeing what more data can achieve. :thumbsup:

[strongmanmike]

Thanks a lot guys :thumbsup: I did a couple of processing versions, this crop was from one, just as a taste, who knows what the final image will look like :)

Mick, I'd been either on the road holidaying or in front of a screen online judging (a lot of work and concentration actually, so many entries and most requested feedback too :eyepop:) all of July, so yeah I was hanging to collect some photons, I had missed quite a few clear nights. I was actually meant to go back to work on Tues but grovelled (it was short notice) to my manager :D. Yeah baby, go Angie's Fighting Dragons! :D

Thanks for the galaxy suggestions Al :thumbsup:

Mike

[strongmanmike]

Cheers mate, I have said it before but I need more image scale up there..I want a bigger scope too, I want to go remote...I want...I want..I..:help:

Mike

[Retrograde]

An eagle from Eagleview :question:

Excellent! Looking forward to the final image now (and judging by the resolution in this little appetiser it will be worth waiting for ;)).

[Startrek]

Mike,
Stunning resolution and detail up nice and close
Hey but what else do you expect from the king of the mountain
Looking forward to seeing the finished product and some of your Galaxy work over the coming weeks and months , a real joy to view

Cheers
Martin

PS: Been away OS for a couple of months and hopefully some imaging tonight in ol Sydney town ,nice and clear for the next 2 nights but Dew could be heavy later into the evening. Still nice to get out and fire up the rig again

[strongmanmike]

Cheers Pete, yes appropriate name huh? :P



Thanks Martone, because you can shoot Ha and SII in them (less so OIII), nebs are good to shoot when you have a little bit of moon to contend with but in moonless dark skies, galaxies are the most fun for me and best represent deep astro :thumbsup:.

Hope your travels were much fun :rundog: :)

Mike

[Garyh]

Great little Hubble image! That good seeing is paying off!

[strongmanmike]

Thanks Gary :thumbsup:

Yeah, the previous best seeing at my former observatory is now my poor nights up at Eagleview :lol:...a solid improvement :)

Mike

[rmuhlack]

Nice detail, but I'm curious why you're happy to use RL Deconvolution but seem opposed to the use of BlurX, which is essentially automated selection of (and then application of) optimal decon parameters... ?

[strongmanmike]

Hi Richard, I'm not opposed to the use of BlurEx, it's another tool in the shed, all good :thumbsup: I don't have Pixinsight so I can't use it. I do however see many images where the use of BlurEx is very obvious. I think anything other than a careful, gentle application, looks unrealistic.

Of course it could just be me...and that unrealistic high contrast "look" to the details will just become accepted as the new norm...but I hope not.

Mike

[rmuhlack]

couldn't the same criticism be applied to decon in general though, which has also been fraught with oversharpening and other artifacts (eg the dreaded worms) over the years. Seems to me that BlurX has simply made decon more accessible.

[strongmanmike]

Yes, indeed the famous "worms" and "detail turned into dots" would be equivalent to the unrealistic high contrast unnatural look that BlurEx can impart :)

Mike

[Dave882]

Ooh that’s really cool. I think sometimes a Ha image can stand nicely on its own and this is a good example with great subtle detail and control of those bright areas.

[petershah]

super job Mike...saw this one on FB...it has so much potential and cant wait to see it all done up up with some Strongman magic!!....Unfortunately for us although we can see it up here in the North it still hangs pretty low down....even at the observatory in Spain...but I did have a run of really nice seeing and have attempted the Pillars just last week..

looking forward to seeing it finished

Peter

[Nikolas]

Looking forward to the final result mate

[strongmanmike]

Thanks Dave, Pete and Nik...as bad luck would have it, currently looks and feels like a great night, cold crisp and clear...but drum roll...crap seeing :eyepop: :sadeyes:...yeeees Eagleview is human :rolleyes:...oh well, it might improve, worst it has ever been...it was 3.5" a few minuts ago..but seems to be improving :help: Doh!...so, I'm collecting RGB, even with the Moon, grumble grumble.

The beer is cold and sliding down like velvet though...:drink:..

Mike

[strongmanmike]

...ok...down to 2.5" ish now...holding breath....:prey:

Mike

[petershah]

fingers crossed for you Mike....no point in rushing it

[strongmanmike]

Meah...seeing struggled to stay under 3"... mostly just over, shight conditions, clear but became very windy...managed to grab 40min each of pretty soft RGB but by the end of that, the wind was too strong, 25-30km/hr gusting to 40km/hr...some of it got in the dome too, creating some very interesting star shapes :sadeyes:

Oh well, we've all been there...:rolleyes:

On a good note, after packing it in, I made a lovely ravioli stuffed with Italian pork sausage, in a Gorgonzola and Parmesan cream sauce...YUM! :D

Mike

[petershah]

I'll be right over :lol:

[strongmanmike]

It's not that far past Spain...:shrug:... you should just keep driving, on your next maintenance run, for a down under visit :D

Mike

[markas]

I eagerly await the complete image!

I also like the B&W as it stands.......I have an Halpha image of M16 as my screensaver:D

(Re BlurX, I agree it's often overdone, but used carefully I think it causes less damage than is often seen with standard decon or USM - and it is a lot easier and quicker to get it right - with the proviso that the speed depends on using the computer graphics hardware.)


Mark

[strongmanmike]

Thanks Mark and yep on Blur Ex :thumbsup:

Comparing last nights data with Monday nights is quite alarming...:eyepop: its like they were taken from completely different locations with completely different gear :scared2: :lol:

Mike

[multiweb]

Really cool close up. Lots of details at the tip of the pillars. Top shelf. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[markas]

Mike,

At my site at 680m altitude on the North side of Mt Macedon, the range of seeing is 1.5" - 3.3" - after which I give up......It just isn't worth it on galaxies of any distance
Mark

[strongmanmike]

Yeah that's pretty much where I gave up too :)

I've had so much good seeing up there, this was the first time since first light last October, where I essentially had a full night of ordinary to crap seeing (2.5"-3.5" and windy!)...guess I've been spoiled :shrug: with seeing mostly in the 1.4" - 1.8" range, only sometimes going just over 2"....hope it was just a blip :eyepop: :prey:

Drove west of you recently, from Kyneton to Apollo Bay, looked over to Macedon ranges and thought about astronomers over there :thumbsup:...Bert Candusio's observatory was up there too if I recall?

Mike

[marc4darkskies]

No brainier. Natural palatte augmented with with Ha and maybe even Oiii. The Hubble palette version is sooo 1995. 🥱. BTW, your Ha data looks great!

[strongmanmike]

He he...ah yes, Batman Forever...A Kiss from a Rose...they were the daaays...:love:



Cheers, yeah, the 1.4" sub was awesome when it came down, sculled a beer to celebrate :lol:...complete opposite two nights later, when the 3.5" sub came down..very forlorn, I think I cussed :question: for most of the night :sadeyes:

Mike

[JA]

Look on the bright side Mike, you are still in a VERY VERY DARK location, so just put off your small image scale work until you get the seeing you'd like and pull out the medium-field and/or wide-field gear, for which the seeing matters less.

Even the 3.5" seeing is only about one pixel worth of wobble/inexactness at a 300mm focal length on full-frame or 2 pixels worth at 600mm. Excepting small image scale work or planetary I'd say it's all good bro, especially below 300mm focal lengths for much wider fields or nightscapes.. Such a dark sky setup is not easy to come by so Live it up :D:D

Best
JA

[strongmanmike]

He he yeah you are quite right, and I did consider it but you know, I kept hoping..hoping..then the wind picked up and then the wind picked up some more ...now it's getting laaate, the seeing hasn't improved, what do I want to doooo?...:question: DOH!:doh: I haven't used the FSQ106/FLI16803 kit yet, the seeing quality has blown me away so much up there, I have been so excited to just hit things at high res, it's just been so thrilling to see such sharp data come down so regularly :P...maybe now I know that the seeing isn't aaaalwaaaays great :rolleyes:...I'll get her out :)

You are right the skies are dark and transparent so when I do use the 3.5"/pix fast wide field FSQ rig, it will be sitting pretty, bullet proof...even if the seeing softens :D

Mike