First Light - Heaven's Mirror Observatory

[Martin Pugh]

Hello all - I have been off the forum for a while, and certainly glad to be back to report that my remote observatory is up and running at
Sierra Remote.
You can see some photos of the equipment here.


http://www.martinpughastrophotography.id.a u/Heavens_Mirror.htm


and here is the official first light.

IC5067 –The Pelican Nebula (Narrowband)

SII (5.5hrs), Ha (5.5hrs), and OIII (7hrs 50minutes) – total of almost
19 hours.

http://www.martinpughastrophotography.id.a u/Nebulae/IC5067.htm (http://www.google.com/url?sa=D&q=http://www.martinpughastrophotography.id.a u/Nebulae/IC5067.htm)

Planewave 17” CDK, Apogee U16M, Astrodon NB filters (5nm, 5nm, 3nm).

Hope you like this, but comments very welcome.
Cheers
Martin

[Octane]

Just stunning, Martin. So much fine detail!

Great to see you posting again! :-)

H

[DavidU]

WOW Martin. Stunning indeed.

[Star Catcher]

Congrats Martin on your new endeavour and what a great 'champagne' image to christen the observatory ! :)

Ted

[Stevec35]

Really nice Martin. Probably the best narrow band of that area I've seen.

Cheers

Steve

[jase]

Marvellous image Martin. Good to see you up and running again. This is such a fantastic area for narrowband work. Lovely bit of robotic gear too, along with the Apogee U16M and all. I can understand what you've had to go through having done so myself - challenges are plentiful that's for sure. Really look forward to seeing more cracker images from this setup.

[Martin Pugh]

Thanks Gents for the posts.

Yes, very excited about what the site and scope combination will produce. When contemplating which scope to put up there, I knew it had to be the CDK to take advantage of the seeing. Raw FWHM can be as low as 1.3", with the consistent average lying between 1.5-1.8".....and that's after a 30 minute exposure.

My RC will come home (4 months to go!) and go into a new observatory at Yass.

thanks again
Marin

[TrevorW]

Nice job Martin a lot more to come I hope

[atalas]

Excellent work Martin and congrats on the new obs.

[batema]

I think the image of the nebula is stunning for a first light but I could look at that photo of the CDK on the paramount for ever. Know that looks fantasic and virtually no processing. Have fun.

Mark

[Alchemy]

Its somewhat difficult to comment on images like this, I stopped and roamed through both pictures for ages, gobsmacking detail, smoothness, 3d-ness( if there is such a thing) . It makes me wonder just where will we go in another 20 years, we are at a point now where we can almost produce Hubble pictures.

Yes it's lovely work, but how can you improve on this... Amazing.

[jjjnettie]

Jaw dropping stuff Martin.
Congratulations on your new set up. I hope it will serve you well. :)

[gregbradley]

Welcome to the CDK17 club Martin. A very nice opening image. Very detailed. I am not the biggest
fan of NB but dabble in it occassionally. Yours is a good one.

It'll be good to see what it can do in super dark and excellent seeing skies. When you do LRGB you may find
you will need to do vignetting processing in your images. I often do. Your gradient handling technique handles it well.
Flats alone are not enough as the scope design has gone for a smaller central obstruction with an increase in vignetting
as a consequence but a sharper image - so it's a tradeoff.

The U16M is a good camera - I used one for about a year or so. The slow cooldown time is not that much of an issue. What happened to the STX16803 or is that what you are using at home?

Greg.

[alan meehan]

WOW Martin what a set up can see why your so pleased ,nice first light
iam sure you will have many more.
AL

[Martin Pugh]

Thanks for the comments everyone.

Greg - I have yet to do a deep LRGB but I am currently acquiring data (actually as I type this) so it wil be interesting to see how this turns out given your findings.

I will be posting an LRGB image soon!

cheers
Martin

[Ken Crawford]

Welcome to N CA skies! You are about 1200' higher than my site but simular conditions with very good seeing when the air is still. The only thing you have to watch out for is when the jet stream moves the air from the north east as it turbulates over the mountains. You and Bill have joined a great group of people !

Congrats on the equipment setup and the first light!!

[Ric]

Welcome back Martin.

A superb image to return with.

The widefield is simply fantastic, all those little areas to get lost in.

Top stuff

[Martin Pugh]

Thanks everyone!

Ken - yes, I think I have already experienced that effect, or something similar, as on one night, the seeing deteriorated very rapidly.

cheers
Martin

[iceman]

Wow, incredible. Stunning photo.

You're back in Oz in 4 months?

[Martin Pugh]

Hi Mike and thanks for the comment.

Yes, back in 4 months - 3 years gone very quickly. Still, I achieved the very thing I hoped to achieve during this posting - a remote observatory in the Northern Hemisphere.

cheers
Martin

[iceman]

Has it been 3 years already? OMG that's gone quick!

Look forward to seeing you again when you return.

[SkyViking]

Congratulations on getting such a great setup, that must be awesome to have!
And that first light image is just stunning. Really nice and smooth and full of details. It looks like a Hubble image. Thanks for the view.

[Martin Pugh]

Thanks Rolf!

Mike - yes, I intend to at least participate in SPSP and Lostock.

see you then
Martin

[gregbradley]

Did Planewave give you an updated secondary shroud?

The original one allowed stray light reflections in from nearby stars and you'd get a lot of light streaks coming into the image.

The revised one Joe sent me stops that and does a good job of stopping streaks which almost never happen now. But the cost is slightly less sharpness in dim stars as the original is thinner and the new one angles out so where it meets the secondary mirror it is about 4-5mm thick.

I was thinking of coating the inside of the old one with paintboard black paint and see if it works. I started using it again but took it off once I put the reducer on as it worsened the reflections with the old shroud.

Greg.

[Martin Pugh]

Greg
From what I recall, the light shroud on the secondary was just conical, not flared at the end like on some baffles, and I simply did not check the thickness of it. I asked Rick if it was the new baffle (because of the report on reflectinos) and he said it was.

cheers
Martin

[strongmanmike]

Great result Martin

An awesome piece of kit, observatory and site there.

Heck, you and Jase will be mini survey outposts now.

We mortals will continue setting up and pulling down at the whim of the weather :sad:

Mike

[gregbradley]

It would be obvious enough if it weren't a revised one as you would see the reflection streaks sooner or later. Perhaps they revised the design.

Greg.

[RB]

Sensational result Martin, and what a wonderful setup, congrats.
Looking forward to more and to meet you one day at Lostock or SPSP.

[richardo]

A killer image Martin!!
Amazing res and one of the favourite little structures in the area.. known as the Elephants trunk is showing its two little stars at the trunks end beautifully resolved... haven't seen them this well in an image from an amateur imager (well, I say amateur with my tongue in cheek;))
Exquisite detail and processing... just stunning!

Amazing what high altitude, dry and clear skies can do. Especially with apertures of this degree.

Man, that is a setup to die for..... well give a kidney at least :D
Good that you have a man on the ground in case things go pear shape..

In my small networked setup, sometimes a 'park' command from inside my house can be wrought with havoc out in the observatory :eyepop: sends a man running.

Look forward to some lovely northern sky treasures from this rig.... for sure!

All the best
Rich

[multiweb]

That's a great shot Martin and a set up to die for. Welcome back to Oz. Bring us back some clear skies. :thumbsup:

[Martin Pugh]

Thanks very much for posting!

SRO is in a great spot for sure, and where it doesnt get the monsoon weather of New Mexico and other sites down there, it sure does get snow.

Last night, seeing hovered around 1", 'peaking' to 1.3" :D

cheers
Martin

[Ross G]

Hi Martin,

An amazing photo and an amazing setup.

Good luck.


Ross.

[Martin Pugh]

Thanks Ross
appreciate the comment.

Martin

[bloodhound31]

Thanks for raising the bar once again Martin, with such an amazing image. Now we all have something to strive for!

Cheers and blessings,

Baz.

[Martin Pugh]

Thanks Baz.

clear skies
Martin

[Hagar]

Very nice image Martin, just what we have come to expect from you.
Looks like a nice remote setup.