The sombrero season is upon me.

[[1ponders]]

a few months ago it was M83. Now its M104. I've never really had a good chance at a long focal length shot of M104 before. But I'm very happy with the start I'm getting.

Taken 3/6/11 under marginal skies. Total exposure 125min. SXVF-H9, no filters, VC200L. The first image is full frame resized and the second is full size center crop. And I know I hacked the stars :)

[allan gould]

Paul like your shot and you certainly are getting a lot out of that 8"

[renormalised]

Nice shot, Paul:)

Plenty of the globs are showing as is SUCD....plenty of detail.

[Hagar]

Nice one Paul. This scope camera combination certainly gives a nice image scale for small Galaxies.
You have to be happy with this.

[Ric]

A lovely capture Paul.

Both images show some nice depth to them.

[Ross G]

Great galaxy photo Paul.

What is the size of the chip in your camera?


Thanks.

Ross.

[[1ponders]]

Its the observatory that makes the difference Allan. :D I can actually make some use of the camera and scope now.


I am Doug. I'm waiting on a good night (aren't we all) to finally get the collimation nailed down. You're right about the image scale. It has opened up a whole new world of objects.


Thanks Carl, yes i was surprised at what did come out in the finally count. But I'm itching to have another go and see how much more I can get.




Thanks Ric :)


Thanks Ross. The combo works out something like this; SXVF-H9 = 1392x1040 with 6.4 micron pixels. With the VC200L and an image scale of 0.68 "/pix and a fov of 11.7x15.7, according to CCDCalc. I should do a plate solve one day to actually work out the real FOV etc

[jjjnettie]

Lovely work Paul.

[AlexN]

starting to show a lot of detail in the dusty arms at each end too, great work Paul

[DavidTrap]

Great to see all this coming together Paul - will be great to see what you can achieve when the atmosphere dries out a bit!

DT

[richardo]

Paul a VG effort considering this is a beggar of an object especially at the FL you are dealing with!
Conditions need to be just about perfect to begin to reveal the fainter structure in the dust lane.
I rarely seem to have the opportunity..

Colour to come??

Well done!

Rich

[batema]

Great shot Paul and yes wouldn't it be nice to have those clear skies back again. I think your observatory is rocking and rolling now.

[John Hothersall]

Thats showing plenty of detail especially for an 8" scope, want to have a go at this myself.

John.

[Tandum]

I'm glad you're getting the collmination on that scope under control Paul. The stars are starting to look square again. It may be worth reading Moon's technique for RC8 collmimation (http://deepspaceplace.com/gso8rccollimate.php), construction on both scopes is very similar and that technique will probably work on the VC.

[Saturn%5]

Very nice shot lots of detail there.

[mithrandir]

Paul,

Your FOV calculated from this image is 00:12:46.3 by 00:17:05.7

That gives 0.737 ASP.

If this is the same chip as in the Atik 314L+ they give 6.45 microns for the pixels, which increases the FOV and ASP.

[[1ponders]]

You right Andrew, the pixel pitch is 6.45, I suppose one day i should correct the entry in CCDCalc. ;) Thanks :thumbsup:

[jenchris]

I love the fact you can see the dish effect in the saucer - really 3 dimensional.
My effort was not so clever, but weather permitting, I'm going to give it another shot - it's such a great target

[multiweb]

Impressive. That's a very challenging object especially with 8" aperture. Kudos to you. :thumbsup:

[strongmanmike]

This galaxy really makes you Ponder :question:

Great result Paulie, you must have a nice mount.

Mike

[[1ponders]]

Thanks everyone for you comments, I am looking forward to some clearer cleaner nights and a properly collimated scope.

Yes Mike, thanks for posting that link ........ twice! I heroically ignored it the first time. And then h0ughy had to start that damn mount thread. No regrets though, I just need to learn how to put four wheels on it and learn how to get it to get me to town when my car finally dies :lol:

[RobF]

REALLY nice work on this one Paul. Congrats on it coming together so well. I'm fascinated by the globs around M104 since Mike pointed them out. Just amazing and your detail is "tight as".