Silver Dollar Galaxy

[Ken]

Hi it's hard to believe you can see detail in another Galaxy 15 million light years away so easily. This is the first image after a major rebuild on the fork mount of the 18' newt, after some teething problems it seems to track ok. Hope you enjoy this, constructive criticism is always welcome.
Lum.= 2 hours Red = 1 hour Green= 1 hour Blue = 1.25 hours
taken with QHY9
Clear skies Ken

[Robbie]

gr8 pic only critisism I have is Its better than the ones I took

[Bassnut]

Excellent Ken, and you got the streamers !, top work.

[jjjnettie]

Incredibly smooth and so much detail!
Aperture rules.

[multiweb]

Well done Ken, that's a beauty! :thumbsup:

[Ken]

Thanks Robbie, Fred, Marc and Jjjnetie aperture does rule but mounting it is a problem. These were short 4 minute subs, might take some flats and bias and do a Sidonio on it.
Clear skies Ken

[DavidU]

Outstanding Ken:thumbsup:

[CoolhandJo]

One of the best inner core shots I seen! Excellent detail. Has inspired me to take longer exposure times on this!

[glenc]

Ken that is an amazing image of my favorite galaxy.
I prefer to call it Caroline's galaxy because Caroline Herschel found it. She also helped her brother catalogue 2500 DSO.
The distance to her galaxy (the average of 4 recent measurements) is 11.7 million light years. (3.6 Mpc)
http://nedwww.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/NED1D/ned1d.html

[Hagar]

Very nice Ken, Your rebuild seems to have worked very well. You have captured some lovely detail with this big scope.
Well done.

[David Fitz-Henr]

Great image Ken, lots of nice details ! But as it turns out, it is only 11.7 million light years away ... The only question I have is about the slight dark halos around the stars (which would be the processing, not the rebuilt mount / scope).

[TheDecepticon]

It is a fine sight in a scope. Makes you wonder if someone there is looking back at us!!:eyepop:

[Ken]

Thanks guys for looking and setting the distance straight, I used a slight unsharp mask on the Luminance layer but it left rings around the stars. I did a repro on it changing the colour balance slightly.
Clear skies Ken

[Octane]

Ken,

Superb image. That image scale is to die for. I'd like a cross somewhere between the original and reprocess.

Well done, sir.

Regards,
Humayun

[DRCORTEX]

Fantastic pic - one day I hope to be able to do something like this.

An 18' Newt :) - very cool. You obviously meant 18".

I can't beleive the clarity of the core. Very professional!

Cheers

DOC

[dcalleja]

Excellent image. And the spiral structure is very much in evidence which I find is often not the case in images of this galaxy. Great job

[Ken]

Thanks for your comments Humayan, Doc and Dan, finding a processing routine that gives consistent results is my goal at the moment.
Clear skies Ken

[strongmanmike]

Very Nice work Ken :thumbsup:

Yes finding a work flow processing routine that is consitent is good.

did you see todays APOD..? :eyepop: gives us all something to aim for :thumbsup:

Mike

[Lester]

Thanks for the view of your image Ken; outstanding.

[Hagar]

I like the Sidonio Ken. You have softened the stars a little. Looks a lot better.

[iceman]

Beautiful work, Ken! Lovely image.

The background looks a little green in the repro, but overall it's an improvement.

Well done!

[Ken]

Thanks for your replies strongman Mike, Lester, Doug and iceman Mike, those apod guys are always pushing the boundaries. I'm cheering seeing my 253 when I opened Iceinspace tonight that's a first for me.:thumbsup:
clear skies Ken

[StarGazing]

Nice Ken .......... It is amazing seeing something so far yet we can still see so much detail with amateur scopes. Inspiring mate. By the way have you got any photos of the set up you have ????.

Cheers Alex. :thumbsup:

[Prickly]

Nice one Ken,

The stars are looking nice and round there. Good effort with the work on the mount - you must be very pleased.

A top shot.

Cheers
David

[Ken]

Thanks Alex for looking, try to post a shot of my setup tomorrow also thanks David good to have something working again even if there is a few little bugs to iron out.
Clear skies Ken

[Ken]

Pics of my setup Alex, my telescope house is usually a bit of a mess but it looks good in the dark.
Clear skies Ken

[hotspur]

Yep,thats a corker!

really does make you wonder what its all about,when we

see pics like these of the heavens,may be we are'nt supposed

to know all,

well done,what size/type of scope?

[Ken]

Chris the scope is a home made 18" f4.5 Newtonian with plywood tube.
Clear skies Ken.

[Bassnut]

Oh yeah, thats the kind of DIU gear pic I like, so..........agressive, excellent work Ken.

[Ken]

Your just a aggressive guy Fred:lol:

[Prickly]

My hat goes off to you Ken. No idea how you manage to redesign a telescope like that. You have done an excellent job.

Only question is - how will you bring it up to SPSP for the ATM award!

Cheers
David

[jase]

Lovely work Ken. The nucleus glows with the presence of streamers. ...and wow, what a imaging rig you've put together. Impressive stuff right there. Kudos!

[gregbradley]

Great job Ken and well done on making a great scope like that.

Greg.

[Ken]

Thanks for the comments David Jase and David sorry it is well bolted down don't think it will fit in the car for spsp. I think starting something like this keeps you tinkering and changing things for years trying to get the best from it.
Clear skies Ken

[mental4astro]

A little late on the pick-up, sorry.

Ken, looks like you've also picked up a couple of background galaxies too. Am I right?

Mental.

[Paul Haese]

Not sure why I have not commented on this image before. Great looking image with a magnitude of detail. That fork setup is very similar to the 20" at Stockport Observatory in SA. We are currently trying to sort guiding issues on that scope and you guiding is superb. Wish we could boast the same at Stockport.

[Ken]

Thanks for the reply Alexander and Paul yes there are some fainter Galaxies back there that's the great thing about deep images you always get some extra bonuses. The devil is in the detail with a large mount like this it dosn't take much to cause problems when your not a engineer or fitter machinist just a guy scrounging around the garage using hand tools.
Clear skies Ken

[Astrobserver99]

Exceptional image Ken - tracking can be difficult with those big newts, well done!

[telecasterguru]

Fabulous detail. Wonderful job.

Frank