A supernova, a barred spiral and a whole lot of galaxies

[strongmanmike]

Despite strong breezes I managed to grab a short exposure of the Fornax Galaxy Cluster, complete with SN2012fr :D

My scope is in the unprotected open (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/147003522/original) at the moment soooo I am at the mercy of any wind, aaand Sunday night had some :sadeyes:...eventually the kit will be under a Sirius Dome but until then...ARGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG :sadeyes:

Anyway the final image is quite deep regardless but given that it has been softened considerably by the strong breezes there is still sufficient detail to pick out 100's of background galaxies :thumbsup:

Have a surf around the full frame image Fornax Galaxy Cluster (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/147295492/original) 50% full res

Take a look at the Close up of SN2012fr (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/147295493/original) (100% res crop)

Here is the massive heart (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/147301357/original) of the Fornax Cluster

and a Deep Negative (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/147311115/original) image showing all the faint stuff lying in the area, NGC 1399, near the bottom, is absolutely enormous!

What's interesting is that the supernova is about as bright as some of the brightest Milky Way foreground stars near NGC 1365, each of which are some 60 Million light years closer!...that makes SN2012fr rather a bright object....

Was going to go longer and deeper buuut meeeah..got bored, other things to image, glad I managed to grab the supernova though :)

MIke

[Larryp]

Great images, Mike!

[tilbrook@rbe.ne]

Nice Mike!

Wish I had some of that resolving power.

Cheers,

Justin.

[John Hothersall]

Very pleasing scale and the SN is very bright, suprising detail in the crop. Wind is certainly a bloody nuisance. Wonder if the is any cirrus there.

John.

[MrB]

Very nice Mike!
Get that obs built! ;)

[marc4darkskies]

Good one Mike :thumbsup: Looks like that AG is enjoying the good seeing - those stars are pretty tight!

Cheers, Marcus

[rogerg]

Love the full wide field :)

[Derek Klepp]

Thanks Mike

[SkyViking]

Very nice wide field view Mike, it's always a pleasure to see this magnificent cluster in such a way.
That supernova is very bright indeed. I often wonder when we'll see one in our own galaxy, it seems well overdue now. But I guess there could have been one on the other side hidden from our view.

[Novykh]

Very nice.

[strongmanmike]

Cheers Laurie



Coupled to the 16803 chip, yes the AG12 provides both field of view and resolving power, a nice compromise :)



Hi John

Yes wind is the last thing I need to deal with I guess at least I have sky darkness and seeing more in my favour now :thumbsup: Yes there is galactic Cirrus in the area and I picked it up with only 95min Lum so just for you...Here you go Deep Negative (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/147311115/original)



I will, I will...just waiting on the available funds to lay the slab etc....:thumbsup:



Thanks Marcus, yes the AG12 is finally showing her capabilities, I always knew she had them but to finally see them is great. When I am finally out of the wind :windy: and on the better nights (which I actually get a few of now!) the stars will tighten up further and even more detail will be extracted :thumbsup:



Cheers Roger



You're welcome Derek.



Thanks Rolf, yes it is nice to be able to go out and snap a deep and detailed colour image of a galaxy cluster in just 3hrs of imaging, can't do that with a little FSQ ;) he he....



Cheers, glad you like it Ben

[Greg Bock]

all spectacular as usual Mike, dunno why I bother....

[naskies]

Wow, great image!

[AstroJason]

Amazing image Mike. Just blown away by the amount of detail and background galaxies.

[Osirisra]

Awesome Shot! you certainly take some stunning images Mike.

I know the frustration with the wind, have had 4 clear nights in a row but with the constant gusty blasting wind here and no dome I can do nothing but sigh :/

[strongmanmike]

Don't be silly, it is you guys doing the hard yards, chumps like me just take delight in sitting out in the cold and wind making sure we take too much exposure to make a pretty colour picture of it :lol:



Cheers Dave



Thanks Jason, once I am protected from the breezes I get here things will only improve :)



Yes, I have to say Ken, as good as my surrounds and dark skies are, seems I do get a few windy nights :sadeyes: so the 2.3m Sirrius dome can't come fast enough :prey::prey:

Mike

[allan gould]

How come all my plans are unravelled by these great shots. Like Greg said - I may as well just look at other peoples images.

[strongmanmike]

Don't you dare, I like looking at other peoples images too and certainly yours! :thumbsup:

Mike

[CapturingTheNight]

Wow :eyepop: Awesome images there Mike. Congrats on the captures :thumbsup:

[Poita]

Lovely.
What is the total exposure time Mike?

[strongmanmike]

Thanks Greg...oh and my Supernova beats Colins Geyser :D



Hi Peter, thanks, as always all image details can be found under the image at my web site ;)

The total LRGB exposure time here was just a fraction over 3hrs :)

Mike

[PeterM]

Oh wow! Now I know why I don't even bother to try with anything longer than a monochrome 30 second image..ok lots of them.
As usual Mike your images have that extra something that makes them well, just awesome. Congrats.
PeterM

[alpal]

That's a fantastic result Mike.
Thanks for sharing.

[strongmanmike]

Extra something hey...? It's the Parmigiano-Reggiano :P

30 sec to discover a SN?.. worthwhile investment if you pull it off I recon :thumbsup:



Cheers

Mike

[Leonardo70]

Great image Mike ... deep result from your AG.

All the best,
Leo

[strongmanmike]

Cheers Leo, yes really long exposures are not necessary with this scope to get solid image results... of course longer ones will go even deeper and I will do some eventually, the longest I have gone so far from my new dark sky is just 3hrs of Lum....I can only imagine what 20hrs would show :D

Mike

[Ross G]

A great looking galaxy photo Mike and a great SN capture.


...love the observatory!


Ross.

[PRejto]

Thanks a lot Mike! I mean, first of all, your wide field is inspirational. I've just starred at it for very long times wondering if I could get such a wonderful photo by stitching together a bunch of frames! Now I have a bad case of aperture and field of view fever! (Never mind dark sky fever....)

[strongmanmike]

:lol:...yeh it's an invisible one :thumbsup:



Thanks Peter and I'm really glad you enjoyed the full frame view, I like this too, I love galaxy surfing.

Mike

[marco]

Ahhh Mike, what a lovely field of view, isn't it?
A great great image this one, amazing deep with a fraction of the exposure I had on mine and some very fine details visible with the extra plus of the tiny sn on ngc 1365.. definitely a fantastic picture :thumbsup::thumbsup:

Can't see what you are going to produce with a dome to protect your scope from the wind but be aware that having a fixed observatory is the first step toward a total astrophotography laziness :D;)

Ciao
Marco

[strongmanmike]

Ha ha, yes, dark skies, 12" at F3.8 and with a bit of QE in the camera and going deep is much easier..still having to set up half my gear each session, this does make life easier = very deep LRGB images in a single clear night rather than several :thumbsup:

The dome will prevent the wind being an issue and make more nights useable..of course the dome can produce its own local seeing effects too so I will have to see what happens there.

Mike