Starfire Finale

[strongmanmike]

Wish I had more time on this one, it was the last oportunity to squeeze something in after completing the data gathering for the 70's acid trip Eta Carina, at the end of my last imaging session. so I grabbed a bit of Scorpio.

I had less than a two hour window before light to gather the LRGB data and flats so I only managed 70min of Lum and 14min each of RGB and the RGB was done in 2min exposures only so the median combine process would work.

This is clearly not enough exposure for this faint area but I am quite happy how it came together in the end considering. It was a real shame too becasue the seeing was very good and the level of detail is just starting to reveal itself and evidenced in the blue nebulosity at the top left and the pin sharp stars across the fame (not reduced with processing either).. another couple of hours of data would have made a real difference, meeh.. se la vi.

So say goodbye to the Starfire for a while :hi:...next stop.. Orion AG12 :scared2:

IC 4603 & IC 4605 (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/133213107/original)

[h0ughy]

yeah your right its more a brown dwarf rather than a supernova - but to get what you did is testament enough that the starfire in your hands is gold

[Logieberra]

Michael

On a separate by related topic, I looked through some of your images and saw your picturesque 'outback' setup.

I had always assumed that mounting directly on soil / grass would cause issues, with slow sinkage of the mount over the course of the night.

Clearly this is not the case given the precision of your guiding & images, and the extra weight of your rig compared to my former NEQ6 Pro... any thoughts?

Cheers,

Logan.

[Logieberra]

Oops... I had a closer look and answered my own Q!

Concrete pads. Well that's that! http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/116116696

P.S. - nice image ;)

[allan gould]

Very, very nice an exceptional field and photo.

[mill]

Nice even though a bit noisy.
PS: Now you say you are finished with the starfire, you can hand it over to me :rofl:

[Paul Haese]

Me first Martin. :P

Yeah more time would have made this a cracker big fella. Interesting field. I want to try this at a wider field, but the effect of yours is good too. Please finish the shot first, the Orion can wait a little long surely.;)

[irwjager]

That's still pretty amazing for such a short amount of exposure - very nice! :thumbsup: The 14 minute RGB does make your color information rather noisy though. Should be an easy fix with a Gaussian blur over your color info (or a 2-click affair in a certain other tool... ;)).

[Bassnut]

Finally, Ill give you $20 for it tops, you know, since its used.

BTW, nice noisy Pic.

[strongmanmike]

Hey thanks guys :thumbsup:...err?..and NO you can't have my Starfire :mad2:...grrrrrr :lol:..one day it will come out again....

As I said this was just a fill-in last little grab image set at the end of a night. You all know how much I loath artificial smoothing, in this case the effect of smoothing out the colour noise looked fake and/or removed the vibrancy and to me looked worse than leaving the slight noise in there :)...just sit back from your screen a little and you can hardly notice it :D :question:

I think some of you with the luxury of one forget... I DON"T HAVE AN OBSERVATORY :sadeyes: and you have seen my massive kit set!!! so I can't easily just go out and get more data, this makes doing long multi session images very difficult :violin: ...hence I am hoping a 70, 14 14 14min LRGB shot with 12" of aperture at F3.8 (as opposed to 6" at F8.3) will make all the difference...:prey: :thumbsup:

Cheers

Mike

[Paul Haese]

Nah we should never forget Mikey but you are so big and strong that more than makes up for the given facts. So yes we expect you to go out and get more data as you have set a somewhat interesting precedent now. :P ;)

Looking forward to see you new image sets now too.:)

[strongmanmike]

I would imagine there is probably nobody else in Australia going through what I have to go through each and every imaging session to get what I get :shrug: :help:



Man, I am more than a little nervous. Actually, I am about to download all the new FLI software today and test everything (ProLine, CFW, Atlas) on the dinning table (even had permision from Ang to do it! :D) to make sure at least all the imaging gear is working and talking to each other.

Mike

[RobF]

Which just makes it even more amazing every time you produce another gobsmacker Mike :thumbsup: :)

[John Hothersall]

Your noise battling days are over as the super fast AG12 will end noise issues and star colour will still be exceptional like the Starfire.

Instead of slaving over 6 or more nights you'll get it done in 2. I think the secondary may need fine tuning after its transit but once done its done.

We are all waiting for first light so hope this rainy weather ends!!!

John.

[strongmanmike]

Ah thanks Robbo...time will catch me up eventually, my previously Hurculean strength has faded nearer to mortal levels....what I wouldn't have even blink while doing several years ago now makes me grimace and sweat. :sadeyes:



Yeh well that's the theory, if it proves even near to correct I will be like a...dirty but happy swine :)...I think the AG12 would be eyeing off those Starfire star images with a bit of trepidation though :question:..seriously, check'em out man, you will not see tighter stars in any image :eyepop:..no minimum filter no deconvolution nothing, they are blinkin almost raw star images!

Mike

[Alchemy]

Perhaps we are smarter than you........:rofl:

Seriously, not bad for a shorter exposed image, this one needs heaps to really bring out the detail.
Hope the 12 inch gets good use. AND now that you have a quick scope you can capture things others don't attempt so often. My bugbear with this forum is it's the same images time after time, fine for the beginners ........ But to go boldly where no imager has gone ( too often) before. A good theme for the experts.

Ie the rosette, see plenty of them, but how many people actually get the full stem of the rose as well..... You've got the gear for it.

As always good luck with your projects.

[strongmanmike]

Dahh Ug :P



Too true, but I was happy with the final result and I am not scared of posting less than Da Vinci masterpieces, in the end it's about the images not how perfect they are.



You bet, like this infamous shot (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/97061387/original), still nobody has matched it let alone bettered it, in nearly 3 years..I am suprised actually :shrug:. That took three full nights and 20hrs of data. Theorectically the new scope should do it in one night :thumbsup:...but who knows, for all I know I have another ASA in my hands, God I hope not :help:

Mike

[marco]

Nice one Mike even if quite noisy. I am very curious to see the performarce of the new scope Vs. the trusty Starfire..

Clear Skies
Marco

[strongmanmike]

Cheers Marco, yeh many, particularly on this forum, have commented on the noise, above everything else actually :rolleyes:, seems I am one of the few non-noiseaphobes left out there :lol:

Yes I am about to setup the NJP and scope at my mums place, I too look fworwad to seeing it all setup and then the most important job...to test her with the ProLine! :help:

Mike

[Leonardo70]

Say "Ciao" for me to Starfire....

The subject is wonderful ... i shot the same frame last summer....
Very Nice...

Leo

[Stevec35]

Not too bad at all for a short one Mike. Good luck with the new scope.

Small bit of nitpicking - I thought IC4603 was in Ophiuchus.

Cheers

Steve

[strongmanmike]

Cheers Steve

As you would have noticed some noise was left in the image, mainly so as not to destroy the resolution. The seeing was quite good and the subs were just so sharp I wish I had had time to gather much more data :sadeyes:.

It was like she knew I was going to put her out to pasture :question:...considering this is an LRGB ie no tiny Ha stars nor any decon or star shrinking, the star images in this shot (10min subs for Lum) are testament to the capabilities of the Starfire working at its best and will require the AG12 to perform perfectly to get close to matching them I recon :)

Mike

[RobF]

How much mucking around will it be if you suffer withdrawal and want to whip the starfire out for an imaging run now Mike? :question:

[strongmanmike]

Unfortunately, a reasonable pain in the R's...but certainly doable :question:.

I would hope to use the AG12 for a while... until I can get another mount for the Starfire (maybe use it for visual?) and then hopefully another camera at some stage so I can do simultaneous Lum and RGB imaging of the same subject, ahhh that would be good :thumbsup:...but that would be pushing the portability scenario to the limit :eyepop: :screwy: :lol:

Mike

Mike