NGC 104 (47 Tuc)

[marc4darkskies]

I got in a quicky (for me) on Friday night - 3.25 hours. I'm not big on globs but this one has character I think. I went wide (F5.5) and, with 5 min subs, reasonably deep. I had to supplement with some 1 min subs though to recover the burnt out core.

The glow in the bottom right is the SMC and the accompanying smaller globs are associated with the SMC. There are a few faint galaxies visible in the background too if you look hard enough.

The seeing was lousy (3 - 4 arcsec) so the stars aren't quite as tight as they should be for an 2.25 arcsec / pixel image scale. I think the overall result is reasonably pleasing though.

Small: http://upload.pbase.com/image/103785965/large
Large: http://upload.pbase.com/image/103785965/original

Cheers,
Marcus

[jase]

Not sure Marcus. Looks a little too clinical or sharpened. Globulars require good seeing as sharpening gets tricky towards the center where stellar profiles overlap. You can of course mask the effect. Try a DDP to give you an indication of what the dynamic range entails, then replicate this with levels and curves to get better control. I know you're capabile of more based on previous work.

[winensky]

Nice work. Good colour. I really like globs and sometimes wonder if given their relatively high surface brightness and need for really tight resolution, that a more planetary approach to imaging i.e. lots of shorter, (say 30s -2 min) exposures might not work. Just musing, definately no criticisim here. Thanks.

[marc4darkskies]

Hmmm, too contrasty perhaps? I haven't sharpened at all. I've deliberately made it contrasty to give the full frame impact. I've softened the inner region a little bit - any better?



Thanks mate. You might be right for close-up work but for wide field you need to go deeper I think - to put something interesting in the surrounding space.

Cheers, Marcus

[Peter Ward]

Marc,

There is sooooo much great data there! But simply too much contrast....unless you are in orbit, the sky is never that black :)

A couple of tweaks...beeeeaudiful!

Peter

[marc4darkskies]

Thanks Peter, have a look now (same link - don't forget to refresh). Any better?? .... It hurts not to make space black :)

Cheers, Marcus

[jase]

An improvement Marcus. Didn't realise you hadn't used any form of sharpening. Nothing wrong with dark skies as "black", but a little brightness doesn't hurt. Nice work on the repro.

[iceman]

Nice work Marcus, I love the gold/red stars in amongst the glob. There's a cyan hot pixel of some sort though?

[Garyh]

Very nice Markus! beautiful star colors!
I`m happy to get stars 3-4 arc secs any old time ... :)
cheers

[RB]

A very nice re-process Marcus, I like this version better.

Well done.

:thumbsup:

[marc4darkskies]

Thanks Mike! Nope, real blue stars but I've exaggerated the colours (of course). Look close and you'll see others.



Thanks Gary. The best I've seen here (north western Sydney) is between 1 and 2 - quite rare though.



Thanks Andrew - yes, I've got to be less zealous with the contrast for sure.

Cheers, Marcus