A fun comparison II

[strongmanmike]

How close can you go? :P

http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/107605167/original

Mike
Narrow field rules......? :D

[renormalised]

HST's is more of a bold, in your face, statement. Yours is a more subtle kind of approach:P:D

[h0ughy]

well done mike, imagine what you could do with an 8"

[strongmanmike]

8"..???? I want a custom 12" F7 APO now (think I could still lift that?), with 4" field flattener and on an AP1200 mount, say?...$75K? If the nit picking Libs don't block the rescue package in the Senate, I should have at least $950 as a start :D bugger the wide field astrograph...

:thumbsup:

[renormalised]

Try these for size:D.... Equinox Interscience (http://www.eisci.com/mounts.html)

[avandonk]

Here is a crop from an image taken with the SN10 with iffy guiding.

Bert

[strongmanmike]

Ooops almost US$100K for a 10" APO sooooo a 12" APO....? :doh:

[strongmanmike]

Hey com'on Bert that's an outa focus shot of your wifes best friend ..isn't it? ;)

[renormalised]

True, but better than almost US$168K for a top of the line 8" Tak:P

12" APO's probably in the region of $150K US.

[bratislav]

Bert,

I think its time to think about mount upgrade. Here's a crop from one of my test runs with a 10" (on my homemade mount), breezy night (I had to throw away 2 out of five 10min shots), one shot color camera (QHY8), with last quarter moon 30 degrees away.

PS and no blue halos on stars :P

[Bassnut]

Thats pretty good Mike, try as I may, I cant match your effort on the finger, well done ;)

[kinetic]

Hi Mike,

this is the best I can do with a cheap chinese light bucket and
DSI on a homebrewed, computerised GEM. :)

Steve

[strongmanmike]

Yep that's peeerty good!

A good "up yours" capture shows the kink in the wrist under the hand as well as the middle finger - both visible in yours :thumbsup:

Mike

[Alchemy]

hmm an interesting challenge, let me find a few old subs and have a play, ill get back to you soon.

[rally]

So here is your new f8 refractor then !
http://www.optique-unterlinden.com/takahashi/en/FET-300.php

Made by Tak

At 150kg you may need a mount upgrade

[Alchemy]

nup sorry , im not even close.

[rogerg]

ooo... nice attempts everyone :thumbsup:, and very tempting to give this a shot tonight (even with the moon around)! .. is there an NGC/IC/other catalogue designation for it exactly?

[strongmanmike]

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D

How the hell much would that be?

150KG HUH?....once apon a time maybe? http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/61611907/original

:rofl:

Mike


Mike

[strongmanmike]

Bah who cares? Still a very lovely image Clive :thumbsup:

Mike

[renormalised]

Well Mike, the FET 200, it's little brother, seems to retail in the US for around $195-200K. I'd say you'd be looking upwards of $300-350K.

In Oz dollars.... $500K and up.

Goto Equinox (the site I showed you before) and get a quote of them....you'd probably get the whole shebang for $200-250K, might even be less.

You can also try these for size too....D & G Optical (http://www.dgoptical.com/index.htm)

[rogerg]

Well, I gave the finger a shot on Friday night. Conditions were extremely poor: 50% cloud cover, high level thin stuff everywhere, bright moon, and a bit of a breeze now and then to shake the scope around. But I had to try!

My hat goes off to you Mike, you've achieved a great result in the image you orginally posted :thumbsup: .. this is not a particularly large object!

Attached is my attempt.

It's 17 x 5 minutes, all using clear filter.

Results would have been much better on a night of even average conditions, but still, I expected I would get more on such a poor night.

Processing:

Stacked in CCDSoft using average
Enlarged using Genuine Fractals to 250% using medium texture, medium-heavy sharpenning, 5% film grain.
Cropped
Levels, curves.
Cropped
Levels, curves.
Manual sharpenning with tool.
Looking at it now I wish I hadn't sharpenned it so much, but I didn't save a copy half way through processing yesterday.Thanks for the inspiration to get out and do some imaging on such a dodgy night, Mike, a great challenge :thumbsup:

Roger

[strongmanmike]

Oh ya Roger for have'n a go mate, it's fun trying different things :thumbsup:

Even though Eta was well on its way down in the southwestern sky when I did that shot last year the seeing was still quite reasonable but I have been wanting to try again this year if the seeing cooperates and go for it when it is crossing the meridian, I'm sure I could pull a bit more out then? There are other techniques that would improve the resolution too, like lots of really short subs and then only using the best ones ala planetary imaging and just what Steve Kinetic has been doing lately with his 12".

Mike

[strongmanmike]

While I think my shots are pretty good for a small amateur scope, if you want to see a shot almost as good as Hubble with what is (just) still an amateur instrument, have a look at Johannes Schedlers site, scroll down to his Eta shot taken on 17 May 2008 under excellent seeing conditions in Namibia FWHM = 1" with a superb Philip Keller 20" cassegrain:eyepop:

Check out the lasrgest files, they are simply breathtaking

http://panther-observatory.com/

There are always better shots out there :)

Mike

[renormalised]

Just had a look at the pics....I think now that Theo has the beast in his obs, with a bit of practice he'll be able to churn out pics like that. Or close to that quality, anyway.

[spearo]

Mike,
I love this image
just awesome
http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/94211399
frank

[strongmanmike]

Thanks Franko, that's my longer FL RC FOV simulation :P

Mike