NGC2736 Herschels Ray

[gregbradley]

Here is the first of several images from my recent imaging trip.

Herchel's Ray is part of the Vela Supernova Remnant complex and is quite a dim but beautiful object.

The Tak BRC 250 at F5 has picked up the background O111 bluish gas which usually doesn't show in images.

This image is nearly 5 hours in total and taken over 2 nights.

Tak NJP mount, FLI Microline 8300, Astronomik filters and FLI PDF digital focuser which made exact focus a breeze (nice piece of equipment).

http://www.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/107971610/original

I have a larger file I can post later but I'm on wireless broadband at my dark site observatory and Telstra wants a lot!

Greg.

[Bloodbean]

Greg,

Your effort has paid off, that is a beautiful image! The colours look perfect.

Troy

[iceman]

Stunning image Greg, very interesting patch of sky.

[atalas]

Awesome Greg ! :thumbsup:

[astroron]

Great image Greg:thumbsup:
Just as a coincidance, this was on APOD two days ago.
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap090108.html

[strongmanmike]

That's a nice field Greg but to be honest it does look like it may have been processed in a bit of a rush? I think once you get home you will probably feel like reprocessing it :whistle: (reprocess??? :scared: ...who said that?:whistle:).

Mike

[Ric]

Great capture Greg, very nice details in this one.

[Deeno]

Wow.

[Kevnool]

Simply stunning image......Cheers Kev.

[Paul Haese]

Beautiful image, although there looks like some dark spots to the right of the nebulosity. Is this dark nebula or just breaks in the nebulosity?

[gregbradley]

They'd be dust areas.

Greg.

[gregbradley]

Thanks Ron, Louie,Iceman, Troy, Ric, Deeno, Kev and Paul.

Mike yes a repro has been done and I think you are right. It probably is a good policy to leave an image once worked on overnight to see if you are still happy with it with fresh eyes.

I have made it less saturated and more muted and increased the contrast and pulled back the background a tad. I am happier with this repro.

Let the repros begin hehehe!:lol:

Greg.

[Hagar]

Nice image Greg. Fine detail is very clear.

:screwy::screwy::screwy:Don't listen to mike he is just drumming up support for when Centaurus A reappears.:screwy::screwy::screwy:

[gregbradley]

Hehehe thanks Doug.

Greg.

[beren]

:thumbsup: Congrats Greg awesome image

[gregbradley]

Thanks Beren. Yes I like the Tak BRC and FLI ML8300 combo it opens up extra imaging targets.

Greg.

[strongmanmike]

The repro is better Greg, but I recon that big APO will kill the Tak ;)

Oh and Doug... :P:P:P:P

:whistle:

Mike

[gregbradley]

Hi Mike,

You might be right there. I did a few test images on the weekend and they were very impressive. Awesome scope.

Here is a photo of it mounted ready for action with the TEC field flattener and the ML8300 camera:

http://www.pbase.com/image/108063152

The good news is the NJP mount handles it well and autoguiding gave nice round stars. I took a 15 minute Ha of Orion and it showed the Trap stars
with no core burnout!

Greg.

[Bassnut]

Greg, I was wondering how your NJP would take the new tak, looking good. And excellent pic too, different, nice change.

[strongmanmike]

I have a feeeeeeeling you have there your final system? :D

Looks great.

Mike

[gregbradley]

Thanks Fred.

How have you been? Been a bit quiet lately.

Been doing any imaging?

Mike, yes I hope it is!

Greg

[Bassnut]

Noticed Sydney weather lately ? :P, not good for megadata :mad2:.

I get discauraged sometimes :rolleyes:.

[spearo]

Stunning, pinprick stars, beautiful nebula
top shot
well done
frank

[multiweb]

Nice shot but great processing. I really like the balance between the stars and the nebulosity. Soft colours while keeping all the contrast in the faint and fuzzies. top work. :thumbsup:

[marc4darkskies]

Lovely image Greg! You've done it justice with the repro for sure!

BTW, whenever I come to IIS these days I have to wear a bib. I salivate uncontrollably whenever I see your 180. First image soon????!!!!! <sluuurrp>

Cheers, Marcus

[gregbradley]

Hi Marc,

Yes the 180 is a work of art.

I took some test images but not enough to publish anything.

I took some Horsehead in Ha (nearly full moon) using the Microline and it gave an excellent image scale. Even more zoomed in than my RCOS 12.5 inch and more the image scale you see with a largish RCOS.

But the price of course is its fairly dim and even with 4.5 hours it is still too noisy.

I took 2 15 minute subs of M42 and M42 filled the whole image and I was very surprised to see the trap and no blown out core. Must be something to do with the image scale and pixels/arc second. Unfortunately I had accidentally added a delay of 2 seconds to the guiding times so the stars in one weren't round and the other was out of focus!

Next trip for sure will be TEC time. I also have adapters on the way to get correct metal back distances from the flattener.

Mechanically the scope is great. Not really that heavy (about the same as the AP140 and probably much the same as your TOA 150 16.5kgs).

I was happy to see the NJP could handle it and that it was not affected by wind.

Greg.

[gregbradley]

Thanks Frank and Marc.

I have to watch my heavy handed saturation at times and tone it back so thanks for that as I have worked on that aspect of my processing.

Greg.

[gregbradley]

Yes I have a dark site and I was going through that. Driving 3.5 hours only to be greeted by cloudy skies or clear skies, get all setup and clouds come in. However the weather pattern seems to have changed (notice bad weather was always in the new moon weekend?) and clear skies back to being the norm there.

I take it your Moorook (spelling?) site is business only? Boy Thomas Davis and John Gleason have been putting out the images of the year from that site with an AP155 and an AP 155 telecompressor and Proline 16803 camera with Baader filters.

Absolutely stunning. Do you get really good seeing and lots of clear nights there?

Greg.

[Octane]

Greg,

That's a work of art. So hard to believe that that is actually up there.

Splendid work.

Regards,
Humayun

[gregbradley]

Thanks very much Humayun I appreciate it.

Greg.:)

[Bassnut]

Greg, yeah, no of clear nights at Moorook is good actually, one of the better spots in OZ ;-), as this spread sheet shows (scroll down).

http://www.riverdingo.net.au/data.htm

[gregbradley]

Yes that is good.

I guess with my site it was more the timing of the cloudiness last year.

There seemed to be a pattern where the new moon week would see a front coming across from WA from about June onwards and has only stopped happening about Jan 1.

It seemed to be rainy in Sydney on the new moon weekend, followed by a week of clear weather in the rising moon week then rainy again on the full moon week then clearer in the week after that. Then back to a new front on the new moon week.

Greg.

[Garyh]

Very nice Pencil there Greg!
Beautifully detailed and colored!
10 out of 10 stars there!
cheers

[gregbradley]

Thanks very much Gary.

Greg.