Eta Carina AP140

[gregbradley]

I added some Ha to my earlier image of Eta Carina.

Its noise free- guaranteed!

I didn't do any noise processing either.

AP140, Apogee U16M camera, Astronomik filters, Astrodon 5nm Ha filter.

http://www.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/101597421

Greg.

[Babalyon 5]

Great colour, awesome shot! I cant wait to get into Ha! Wall poster for sure!:eyepop:

[beren]

:thumbsup: stunning vista

[Peter Ward]

Stars just a little "eggy" (6 to 12 o'clock) in the full res image (self guide is not such a hollow feature ;) )

but overall Nice one.:thumbsup:

[avandonk]

Peter the stars are jpg crap let alone eggy or have I missed something?

Bert

[gregbradley]

Gee whiz Bert you are out of line I think.

Greg.

[gregbradley]

For those who like the hi-res images here is full hi res:

http://www.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/101597692

Greg.

[gregbradley]

Yes a small amount of flexure I think.

Greg.

[strongmanmike]

Doh! sigh...there's that picky "what can I see wrong with this image" approach creeping in again :(

Peter, what leads you to the conclusion that the star egging in Gregs image was the result of not having a selfguiding camera?

Greg, this is a spectacular vista! I think it is necessary to provide both the smaller fit-it-all-in sized image too (as you have made available at your web site) along with the full frame full res version particularly with nebulae images like this as it is hard to really appreciate the view if you have to scroll too much. It is hard to display the most common object imaged in the
southern skies in a new light but I recon you have just about done it here.

Nice job dude.

Mike
long live the full frame, full res image post :jump:

[gregbradley]

Thanks very much Mike!

Greg.

[Peter Ward]

Just to put a spot fire out...I gave Greg a well deserved "thumbs up". It is indeed a fine image.

The stars are also egg shaped (you want me to do a A:B rollover?)... hardy necessary.... and hardy fatal...as I said a fine image.

I too own an Apogee camera (dammed expensive one to be sure)
that does not "self guide".

I find small differential flexure elements creep in because of this...hence absolutely nailing the guiding also to be a challenge...well for me at least...as the guide optics don't always see that the CCD is seeing.

Sure you can be picky, but that was not my intent. I look at images with little or no regard to the how/what/where/when and certainly do not succumb to PC critiques of 'that's nice dear" :)

I just call 'em how I see them.

As for self guiding......well, it works!

and as for AO...Mag 5 or better guide-stars... allowing 15Hz guiding are sweeeet. :)

[Ian Robinson]

Very red , but wth .... WOW !!!!

[jase]

This is a sweet looking image Greg. You've managed the star colours/stellar profiles much better than your LMC image. Excellent work there. Colours are rather natural looking which I find appealing. Not sure I why as I do enjoy saturation boost. The only thing which I find a little annoying is the image registration - down the right side of the image it looks like one or more images haven't aligned properly or the layering needs to be feathered to provide a smoother transition. This aside, a marvellous piece of work. Not sure if I want a camera with this chip size considering you're severely limited by scope selection. Kind of a waste of real estate if you can't fully illuminate the field and correct for flatness. Looks like your rig handles it well as does the FSQ, but I'm sure there is only a hand full out there.

[strongmanmike]

:rolleyes:... I wanted to know how you could tell the unusual egging in Gregs image was specifically from not having self guide?

I noticed the star images weren't consitant in shape across the frame either or from corner to corner, Greg had coregistered data from different nights too, so how could you tell what was causing what?

Mike

[TrevorW]

Hey guys a little critic doesn't hurt sometimes we are all adults and assume that we are adult enough to take such in it's stride. IMO it doesn't negate the quality of the result but eggs us on to the Nth degree to achieve that perfect shot. If we have a problem with sometimes negative opinion then why post.

This image is excellent far better than I can achieve !!!

:whistle::whistle::whistle:

[Ric]

A great looking image Greg, wonderful colour and detail.

I think you have done a fine job with this one.

Cheers

[gregbradley]

I also have an Astrodon MMOAG available in the line. I haven't used it yet as it wouldn't work with my Starfish camera. I believe it works with the ST402ME so that will be the next step - integrating that. So we'll see how that works out.

The AP140 and beautiful Tak 4 inch flattener (no longer made) give round stars to the corners so it is not the optics. Its slight tracking errors, autoguiding errors and most likely flexure.

The MMOAG should handle that as it makes it the same as self guiding but in front of the filters which I like.

Yes the Ha was taken a few months ago and was at a quite different orientation and I tried to disguise the transition where it did not go all the way to the edges.

Jase saw through the subterfuge hehehee.

The FSQ should handle the 16803 chip easily and I am sure without the reducer its easy but the reducer like anything at F3.64 requries real precision and my adapter is off as it is designed for an Apogee filter wheel which is on its way at some point (hey whats a coupla months right?).

I read a recent post that the bigger chips require 5 times more orthogonality than say at ST10. But the 16803 is really a double 11002 chip in size so if your scope can handle an 11002 chip it should handle a 16803 chip.

Greg.

[Bassnut]

Very nice Greg, yes, no noise. Sheesh looks fine to me, and yep, the hi res does it justice this time.

[avandonk]

I am sorry if there was a misunderstanding. My comment was directed at Peter's comment on the stars being eggy. I simply wondered how he came to this conclusion from a crappy and this term was directed to the jpg compression with all its artefacts not the content of the image. I did not intend to offend anyone. If you look at all my posts you will see I try to always have a link to a full resolution image even with still inherent crappy jpg artefacts but much less so.

I can assure you if I wanted to really offend anyone I can do much better than this.

Again sorry for any misunderstanding Greg.

Bert

[robin]

World class image Greg. Well done