The Large Magellanic Cloud

[gregbradley]

After quite a long time getting my new gear up and running, sorting out software, computers, adapters, filters I now have a workable and working system.

Also I was surprised to see some clear skies last night after 9pm at my dark site after overcast and rain the day and night before. It snowed and hailed the next morning so it was a window of opportunity.

Seeing was superb but occasional fast moving cloud and even brief showers kept me on my toes!

FSQ106ED with F3.64 reducer, Apogee U16M camera attached with Precise Parts adapter, FLI filterwheel and Baader 50mm square LRGB filters and Astrodon 5nm Ha 50mm square filter.

Autoguiding by SBig ST402ME camera and Astrotech 66mm ED scope mounted piggyback on the FSQ clamshell.

Tak NJP mount and taken at my dark site last night from about 10:30pm until 3:30am.

Ha LRGB 45 25 10 20 20 (Ha and Luminance 1x1 and RGB 2x2).

http://upload.pbase.com/image/101444671

Greg.

[AlexN]

Nice image, Greg.

Red data, (despite the lower exposure) still seems perhaps a touch strong..

detail overall is very sharp and the tarantula looks brilliant..

I can only imagine how awesome the full res image would be.

[strongmanmike]

That camera & scope combo juuust about gets the whole LMC in :eyepop:

Nice work Greg, be nice to see that in full size and high res to have a pan around, lots of interesting things to see in there!

Mike

[marc4darkskies]

Wow! The whole LMC in one frame! Nice job Greg - great pic :thumbsup: I'm with Mike though - bring on the full res version!!

Cheers, Marcus

[gregbradley]

Nice work Greg, be nice to see that in full size and high res to have a pan around, lots of interesting things to see in there!



How do you do that Mike? Do you upload a large file to Pbase?

Alex, the red is from the Ha and I suppose it is a bit strong but I did that deliberately to accentuate it.

Cheers,

Greg.

[strongmanmike]

Yep! :D

Mike

[iceman]

Wow that's special! Very nice work, Greg!

[Peter Ward]

Nice. :thumbsup:

But I agree with Mark......cutting back a 4k by 4k image to a few hundred pixels on a side doesn't do the image or camera justice.

[jase]

The FSQ with reducer + 16.7mp chip certainly delivers a dramatic FOV Greg. Really dazzling display of details throughout the image. Still feel this calls for a two panel mosaic @ F/5 however as I'd like to see more resolution. Just a personal preference... Well done.

[Matty P]

Just stunning Greg, I'm still picking up my jaw from off the floor.

:thumbsup:

[Garyh]

That is one fine image Greg!
Yep it would look stunning to browse around in a high res version!
cheers

[Lester]

Outstanding image. One to hang on the wall.

Well done Greg.

[jjjnettie]

I just set this one as my desktop background.
It's sensational.

[gregbradley]

Thanks for the compliments.

I will post a hi-res version.

In the meantime here is the Ha only subexposures. As you can see it is a very busy area.

This Apogee U16M camera is very sensitive to Ha.

http://www.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/101551740

Greg.

[Jen]

:eyepop::eyepop: woah.... beautiful pic :clap::clap:

[gregbradley]

Well here goes.

Here is the hi-res image. Warning: it is 18 megabytes.

I found out the adapter I am using is set for the Apogee filter wheel which I will be receiving soon and with the FLI filterwheel it is 4mm off from the correct distance to the camera. I expect the stars to be tighter in the corners with the proper distance once the Apogee filter wheel arrives.

http://upload.pbase.com/image/101449032

Greg.

[strongmanmike]

Woaho! :eyepop: like trying to find a house on a map with your nose 2" from the paper :lol:

Only took about 30sec to come down on my machine too, isn't fast broadband wonderful :cool:

The image noise does jump out at you.. at first... but what you need to do is scroll around and let your eyes get used to the image and then the noise is much less noticable as your mind sees the details and features instead...interesting....

Great vista Greg, thanks.

Oh oh...I think I have started a trend here? Now, who can show a full frame full res image with no background noise that preserves the smallest faintest details aaaaand that doesn't look artificially and unevenly smoothed? :D

Mike

[Jeffkop]

Totally awesome picture Greg ... I would love something like that in a frame on the wall. Its always rewarding looking at this forum.

Its got my vote as a TOP contender for the image of the week whenever you want to submit it.

[AlexN]

pwoah... the larger image sure shows it off... :)

Great shot Greg.

ps. I //LOVE// Ha Data.

[Ric]

Fantastic Greg, a wonderful image.

Fine work indeed.

[marc4darkskies]

Whoa!! Full res rules!!! Yep, a bit noisy maybe but hat's off to you Greg!!! Nice work!:thumbsup:



Errr, that would be me Mike ;):D:lol:

Cheers, Marcus

[robgreaves]

I like it :)

Not often you see a shot as wide as that, with such incredible detail.

Regards,
Rob

[strongmanmike]

Ahhh yes, your 6188 image was close, I'll give you that, but you look to have lost some resolution to me, plus you were imaging a pretty bright object too :rolleyes:

T'was a nice forest though :P

Mike

[jase]

The Ha version is nothing short of magnificent. Not sure about the green stars in the colour rendition.

[gregbradley]

Hi Jase,

Yes there was a slight problem with green. I think it was either or both of 2 things:

I noticed at one point the lens had dew on it and I hadn't put my little insulation blanket around the scope as I rarely get dewing at my dark site.
At a guess I'd say dew is most likely to show up in the green image as I have noticed clouds/light pollution show up worst in the green channel.

There were also some clouds that moved in from time to time and these were fast moving. It is quite possible some moved in on one of the green subs. I have noticed before that clouds interfering with a sub often show excessive green in the colour image.

It was a difficult night and I have had a bad run of weather at my dark site. It used to be Sydney was cloudy and my dark site would invariably be completely clear.

Nowadays the weather pattern has shifted and Sydney has been very clear and my dark site overcast!

Greg.

[Bassnut]

Top image Greg. Not sure what to make of it specifically tho, bit WW for me ;-). The undistorted FOV is sure impressive. And the 18meg version is awesome, the res does it justice. You are going to have to be very carefull with processing posting that res tho.

[avandonk]

Greg I think you have over revved in all gears. You have lost a lot of dynamic range. I suppose it all depends on what you want to show. Really faint nebulae are fine in the context of a narrow field. Wide field you have a real problem.For an 18MB image it is lacking depth as well as clarity. I think it is a poor version of what is really there.

Bert

[gregbradley]

I did a reprocess on this one including the full resolution image as there has been some discussion about noise and I got Noise Ninja (seems like a good program).

So I used Noise Ninja and it worked quite well but it does have side effects.

Same links.

Less noise and less odd colours which ultimately come from the wrong adapter spacing to the reducer which is quite unforgiving given its F3.64 speed.

Greg.