My QHY8L Messier Collection

[cybereye]

Hello everyone!

I thought this might be a good time to share with everyone the Messier objects that I've managed to image during the last year with my QHY8L from my backyard in Brisbane.

What can I say other than "Here they are!"

Cheers,
Mario

[Larryp]

Great stuff!

[Screwdriverone]

Wow Mario,

That Lagoon in particular is stunning, my favourite of the bunch.

Nice work!

Cheers

Chris

[alpal]

Hi Mario,
I quite like the pics you've taken especially since you
also took them with an 8" Newt. - the same as I have.
I agree that the Lagoon has come out the best with the tightest stars
& the most detail.

[cybereye]

Larry, thanks and I'm glad you like the pics!



Chris, I have to agree, the Lagoon is my favourite as well. It was the first Messier object I took with the QHY8L and it amazed me with the detail I was able to get. Thanks for your thoughts and kind comments!



Allan, thanks for you comments and I have to agree with you as well on the Lagoon. I'm in the throes of deciding if I should upgrade my scope but I don't know which way to go - longer or shorter focal length, reflector or refractor. Each day I change my mind!! The one thing that is certain is that the 8" newt does the job really well and it gets harder to justify changing my scope. Of course I could always have two....:D

Cheers,
Mario

[Ross G]

Hi Mario,

What a great collection of photos. You should be proud.

You have owned your QHY8L about the same time as me and the improvement in your photos has been amazing.

I have to agree that your Lagoon is the favourite.

Ross.

[alpal]

Keep the scope & just buy a small refractor for wide fields.
I see the fine work that Louie does with his Baby Q.
The 8" f6 is good for galaxies as it has a large enough image scale per pixel & is still fast enough to pick up the faint ones
but also does a nice job on nebulas ( although they don't often fit in the fov.)
I can't wait to try mine out with a QHY9 mono that I'll pick up in a few days.
Mono here I come!

[strongmanmike]

Great collection Mario.

Mike

[Forgey]

Lovely collection there Mario.

[cybereye]

Thanks for that Ross, and I am very proud of my little Messier collection. The two things that really turbo charged my imaging was getting the QHY8L to capture the data and StarTools to process said data into something pretty. When I look at my M16 that I took with my Pentax DSLR two years ago I wonder just how did I miss all that information!



Allan, I was looking at a refractor but now (this means "again") have changed my mind and I'm actually looking at getting a 10" RC for close-ups. However that then entails a new mount, etc. so I'll just have to be happy with what I've got at the moment while I save my pennies.

Enjoy the QHY9 - I must say I'm a big fan of QHY cameras (I have three of the suckers!!)



Thanks Mike! I hadn't realised that I had taken this many Messier images during the last year and it was nice to get them all in one place. I must admit that M16 got a real work-over in regards to reprocessing. I think I managed 5 processing runs on the one image in just over a week! It was driving my wife crazy - "What do you think of this version?" was a constant call from the 'puter. And over she'd trudge, look at it and reply "That's nice...."

As I was posting this collection I noted that my first 3 images were M4, M8, M16... I just needed M1, M2, M32 & M64 to complete the series...:D



Thanks Paula for your kind thoughts. I do like sharing these images with the people on IIS as well as friends who have no interest in astronomy. They look at the images, look back at me and ask "Is that up there?" I just grin and nod enthusiastically (but not like some crazy man!) :)

[alpal]

Mario,



A new mount & a new telescope!
That's another story as an RC can drive a big camera - another expense.
If you love the hobby then why not?
However - those little refractors do give crowd pleasing wide field shots.

I am hoping that I'll get a lot of good pics from the QHY9.
I am surprised at some of the pics I got with a humble entry level DSLR.
Still - the learning curve is high for mono.
Some people re-focus for each filter - other's don't - we'll see.
That's the only problem I'm worried about - best focus!
Maxim DL should manage everthing & if it doesn't I know
there are plug ins which will do it.

cheers
Allan

[strongmanmike]

Viva la repro (aka "doing a Sidonio") :thumbsup: :lol:

Ah wives...gotta love'em :)

Mike