The Large Magellanic Cloud

[gregbradley]

Here is the Large Magellanic Cloud.

Ha LRGB 45 30 30 30

FSQ106EDX with Apogee U16M camera and filter wheel, Baader 50mm square filters.

I used the CCD inspector plug-in that helps to register the images. It is an incredible improvement to the standard CCDstack registration routine.

http://www.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/106178773/large

Greg.

[Inmykombi]

Wonderful detail there.

One could spend all nite in that region by the look of it.

keep up the good work.

Geoffro.

[jase]

LMC is getting a work out of late.
Greg,
Quite a spectacular equipment combination with the flat wide field being delivered. The inner nebulous features are almost a wash in a haze of stars - remarkable. I particularly enjoy the rich star field and nebs against the darker background at the top of the image. May have to target that area sometime. Thanks for sharing and well done.

[gregbradley]

Thanks Geoff and Jase.

Thanks for the tip about the CCDstack plugin Jase. I have
occasionally had trouble registering my images with CCDstack - especially if I have some narrowband to add in.

The standard auto registration most often does not work on STL or larger chips. It seems memory sensitive and requires smaller mb images.

The plug in though will handle the 32mb 16803 images even if it takes the computer a little while to process it all.

Greg.

[iceman]

That's a beautiful image, Greg. One of the best i've seen at that FOV.

Nicely done!

[dannat]

the detail is amazing...one for the pool room

[Deeno]

Wow!
Beautiful

[Garyh]

Very well done Greg! like the Ha blend into the image and nice color balance. Nicely composed as well.
:thumbsup:

[marc4darkskies]

A lovely image Greg - well done! :thumbsup: And what an immense FOV!! That 106 is a sweet scope!

I think I'll try my TOA at F5.5 on the upper left quadrant sometime (if the clouds ever go away)

Cheers, Marcus

[strongmanmike]

Yes, a very lovely view that Greg!

....can I "borrow" your FSQ? :D

Mike

[sjastro]

Very nice image Greg.

Steven

[Peter Ward]

A benchmark effort. Well done. :thumbsup:

[atalas]

Nice work Greg !

[h0ughy]

wow that is one huge area in fine detail

[Octane]

Greg,

Gorgeous. Just gorgeous. Can't wait to shoot this one, again.

Thanks for the inspiration!

Regards,
Humayun

[gregbradley]

Thanks very much for the compliments.

Greg.

[RB]

Greg, what a brilliant image that is !!
Gorgeous shot mate.

:thumbsup:

[wysiwyg]

That is stunning, its really convinced me that the FSQ is the bees knees!

Amazing image there greg, you should be proud.:thumbsup:

[multiweb]

great field and the amount of details is amazing. :thumbsup:

[gregbradley]

Thanks guys.

Yes the FSQ106EDX with its reducer is an amazing piece of gear. I'd give it a 10 out of 10.

I am also really happy with the Apogee U16M except for its very long cooldown time.
This is an issue that Apogee has said it will look at speeding up with a firmware or software upgrade. Still, you just need to turn it on earlier than you would other cameras and allow that extra 35 minutes.
I'd give the Apogee a 9 out of 10.

The upcoming SBig STX series could be interesting and probably will provide the main competition for Apogee. FLI also makes a Proline to compete with the Apogee but it is several thousand dollars more but it does have the best cooling around albeit at a heavy weight. Cooling aside they seem to match each other blow for blow except for weight (the Apogee is a few pounds lighter which could be important with some scopes that are prone to flexure).

I now have received my FLI Microline 8300 which I am about to use. I even have adapters!! That will be more for galaxies and closer up FOV for my AP refractor.

Greg.