M83 season

[Peter Ward]

Work and weather has made capturing any distant photons a little difficult of late.

While I didn't manage to get any colour, and some subs were hamstrung by thin cloud, I did muster up an hours worth of M83 & surrounds a couple of nights back.

Apart from the M83, there are some interesting faint-fuzzies plus a minor planet trail ( for fans of where's Wally, I won't give it's position away :) )
in this modestly deep field.

The link is here (http://www.atscope.com.au/BRO/gallery151.html)

[DavidTrap]

Noice!

I think I've found Wally, but what's your explanation of the dark horseshoe at 11:30 near the edge of frame?

DT

[Peter Ward]

You'll find quite a few dust-mote induced rings due my using some older flat-field data. They'll clean up when I finally get some time to grab new flats! :)

[kinetic]

Great stuff Peter, crisp across the frame.:thumbsup:
Any idea of the MP identity?

Steve

[allan gould]

There literally are 100+ faint fuzzies in that single shot, Peter. It's amazing the resolution of the scope. I'm going to have a go and see what I can resolve with my refractor at about half that scale. Took a while but found your MP.
Thanks for posting.

[Screwdriverone]

Wow, thats simply staggering to look at Peter.

I am not sure, but I think there might be 2 MP trails visible. I can see the large one as well as another with the same profile but shorter by a bit and a little bit dimmer, orientation and length look similar though?

Could there be two in there?

Cheers

Chris

[alpal]

Wow -
the minor planet is bottom center.
There are so many galaxys there.

That's a perfect wide field shot.
That square format is great - you're not losing any data.

Thanks for posting it.

[Octane]

WOW. :eyepop:

H

[MrB]

Nice one Peter, So many faint fuzzies!



Yeah I can see it too, about 1/2 way between M83 and the right of frame.
Certainly looks like an MP but could be an edge-on spiral?

[Tom Davis]

Excelent detail!

-Tom

[dvj]

Peter, I'm a great fan of gray scale images like this. I am wondering if the faint halos around the bright stars are atmospheric effects, filter artifacts, or someting with in the optics of the RHA? I often get fog in Coonabarabran and get resulting halos.

Cheers,

j

[Peter Ward]

Thanks, wasn't the best of nights...halos are probably due some Cirrus cloud



Thanks Tom... Hopefully colour to follow soon.



Ta, Did you notice the very faint background "stars"...quite a few are oddly shaped, I suspect this hints at their true galactic nature.




Thanks H! :)


Yep, MP at about 6 o'clock



Could be.



Thanks Alan.



Ta, as for the MP, Wouldn't have a clue... for those with suitable software, data taken on April 25th at about 10pm Australian eastern time

[Peter Ward]

Did an image link with The Sky to identify the MP's.

Two minor planets, the one at 6'oclock (relative to M83) is (1036) Scythia, estimate Mag 15, and at 3 o'clock (8073) Johnharmon Mag 17.5

[SkyViking]

Great shot Peter, what a view!
The 2nd trail looks like a MP to me too, at around 2:30 position.

[multiweb]

That's an awesome field. So many faint fuzzies. Almost forgot M83 is in the middle. ;)

[Rigel003]

Impressive wide field and so much detail in the background. Looking forward to the finished product.

[gregbradley]

That's awesome.

You are geting that outer halo of M83 rarely seen except in the absolute longest exposures.

It'd be worth getting 10 hours of this one and really show up the extent of that outer halo.

Its really showing up the value of large aperture and fast F ratio plus a sensitive camera.

Greg.

[Stevec35]

Nice M83 Peter. I look forward to the colour. Of course I always think this object is best suited to longer focal lengths given that surrounding it are only small galaxies but I'm sure your version is going to be very pretty.

Cheers

Steve

[RobF]

OMG. Can't wait for the weather to behave and this rig to come up to light speed. Even at idle, that is quite a rush. Stunning field, and the monochrome adds to the suspense of seeing 10hrs LRGB at some stage in the future.

[Peter Ward]

Thanks..yes there were actually 4 MP's, but only 2 showed as trails in the uploaded image.



Thanks Marc!



Makes two of us :)



10 hours?? I wish :lol:. Headed for foreign shores again on Sunday...thankfully a waxing moon in the interim will make both work and (missed ) play easier !



Agreed Steve.. needs FL...as does my RC need mirrors :rolleyes:...re-coating now has delay over a month...but I have to say this Honders covers a good slab of sky at not too shabby resolution.... provided the clouds co-operate.



Light speed? No! We need ludicrous speed. Now! :lol:

[marc4darkskies]

And therein lies the quandary - wide field vs narrow. Do you want to image M83 or the space around it? This scale simply won't do justice to M83 itself IMO. An interesting and pretty image though for sure! :thumbsup:

Cheers, Marcus

[Peter Ward]

I hear you Marcus!

As it turned out I was searching for a reasonably dense galaxy cluster, but as the seeing was awful... due the 35 knot breeze outside ( cloud, rain, gales...what next?? :rolleyes:) I couldn't get any decent resolution in my test shots...

but.....M83 was up, so "why not?" came to mind.

That said, there are alot of *teeny/dim* galaxies near M83 (I never knew they existed) and, despite the lack of technicolor, it gives the image some interesting scale... as Dr Carl liked to say: "billions & billions"...hence I suspect...and I could be wrong... it's that sense of scale that makes the image interesting.

[Joshua Bunn]

Awsome shot Peter, something i aspire to achieve. what kind of image calibration did you perform?

[midnight]

What fascinates me about this image is the faint companions which are very plentiful. I love these shots because it tends to show a third dimension with those galaxies in the distant.

Thanks for showing Peter!

Darrin...

[Joshua Bunn]

Agreed Darrin ... well said.

[Peter Ward]

Many thanks... put that way it I guess it does give you a sense of scale.



Thanks Josh.

When using larger sensors, cosmic rays get to be quite a problem!

I use median sky-flats and median darks. The raw data cleans up really well as a result.

[Joshua Bunn]

Thankyou Peter

[Bassnut]

Mm, thats one for the RCOS methinks :scared3:

[Peter Ward]

You and Marcus been talking eh? :lol:

Yep. Agreed. But, sadly, the RCOS mirrors are still with the coating lab.... ...it's getting you-beaut-enhanced silver-dielectric-overcoat 98% something or other. ;)

[strongmanmike]

Don't worry Peter, Fred's just jealous, having to mozaic planetary nebulae makes you bitter after a while :lol:

Nice work from the RHA, this is another field I would like to hit from a dark sky with the AG12 too...will it ever happen :rolleyes:

Mike

[Peter Ward]

Ta. So much sky, so little time..it is fun getting big slabs of it at once.

[Ross G]

So much detail.

Ross.