Tarantula in Ha

[Rigel003]

I tried some Ha imaging from my suburban backyard last night - a pretty good night in Adelaide with steady skies.

Used my new variable brightness lightbox for the first time for the flats - made by Peter Miller and highly recommended. Also the first time I've used flat/darks in my calibrating. The flats ended up being 11 secs long so I figured they needed darks. This is my first Tarantula image.

http://www.pbase.com/rigel003/image/131826629/original

Takahashi FS-102
18 ten minute subs, FLI ML8300 @ -30 degrees
7 nm Baader Ha filter

[gregbradley]

That's a superb image Graeme. Oh yes the good ole FLI Microline 8300.
What an awesome camera. -30C is conservative for that baby, even in summer
not that its noisy in any way.


Greg.

[Craig_L]

Wow! Very impressive Graeme. Are you using a reducer with the Tak?
Looks like a great camera.

[CoolhandJo]

Very nice image. Top shelf!

[Paul Haese]

Very nice and well defined data.

Are you using a reducer on this Graeme? I can see elongated stars in the corners. Is this a crop too? I don't recall getting this sort of scale with my TSA. Certainly have given me an idea for a further image.

Well done.

[Stevec35]

Looks good to me. I'm starting to think that Hydrogen Alpha only is the best way to do the Tarantula.

Cheers

Steve

[dugnsuz]

Stunning Graeme - beautiful amount of detail.
The little knots of Ha-rich nebulosity throughout the image are exquisite.
Benchmark stuff surely!!
Well done
Doug

[marc4darkskies]

Very nice Graeme!! Yes, the spider comes up a treat in Ha. Minor critique - I appreciate the contrast, but the sky is filled with faint neb in this FOV so the sky is a bit too dark IMO.

Cheers, Marcus

[Rigel003]

Thanks for the comments everyone. Craig, there is no reducer - it was taken at f8. Marcus, you could be right - I find it looks different on the two monitors I have at home.

[mill]

That looks superb with loads of detail :eyepop:

[strongmanmike]

Hey that's excellent Graeme, I like the non traditional faming too.

You have a nice balance between depth and contrast there.

Can you get a reducer? The star elongation isn't too distracting really but the image would look even better without it :thumbsup:

Mike

[Rigel003]

Thanks Martin and Mike. I've resisted purchasing a reducer or flattener Mike, as I'm moving up to a larger refractor shortly. At this scale the stars aren't too bad with the 8300 sensor.

[desler]

Not going to see to many spiders of that quality getting around.

Really lovely image, Calibration makes all the difference. 11 second flats for a 7nm HA, just goes to the quality of Pete's work. My home built and basically dimmed box, still requires 23 seconds with the HA filter.

Good luck and look forward to seeing more of your work.

Darren

[strongmanmike]

Ooooh whatch'ya gettin? :)

I agree the star elongation isn't that bad and only noticable when you zoom in a little.

Mike

[Rigel003]

What I'd like is a scope like yours. However I've just bought the TSA-120 advertised here. A modest upgrade to my FS-102.

[strongmanmike]

Ooooh niiiice :thumbsup:

Yeh shame about the wait on AP's huh...? TOA 150's are popular and have much quicker delivery times and in the same (almost :whistle:) class ;)..did you consider one of these?

Mike