[Shiraz (Ray)]

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

Well, not much to say Ray other than both are absolutely beautiful views, two of the best versions of both objects I have seen taken with a (true) amateur size instrument from a non pro mountain seeing site

Enjoyed

I know your scope is well tuned but you do seem to get some good seeing...lucky bugger

Mike

thanks very much Mike - very generous. The seeing has been good at times, but the biggest thing was building an ROR obs. I can now use an aircon to get the scope surrounds quite cool during the day and that has improved local seeing by maybe 1/2 an arcsecond over what I used to get.

Originally Posted by AG Hybrid

Your image of M20 is absolutely superb. I don't know what the IIS picture of the week is right now but it isn't as pretty as that picture.

thank you Adrian. I agree, it really is a beautiful object.

Originally Posted by g__day

Simply wow!

Hi Matthew - thanks very much

Originally Posted by Joshua Bunn

Ray!!... They are superb! Very easy on the eyes, subtle, but natural looking colours, not overdone, especially M104. I like the fine detail and the background is quite smooth. What were the exposure numbers?

Josh

Hi Josh. thanks for the kind comments. M104 was 7.5 Lum, 6 RGB and M20 was 3.3 Lum and 3.7 RGB. all 1x1 @ 3 minute subs (3 minutes is about optimum for L with this system under my typical sky, but I also use that for colour to improve stars even though not optimum). There is still a bit of noise in the background, but its not too bad.

Originally Posted by AG Hybrid

After taking a double take on your M104 image. The resolution is excellent. Your mount tracking must be sensibly perfect.

Are those lots of globular clusters around the galaxy itself?

the mount is not perfect, but it does well enough with some coaxing. Yes, those are globs - Rolf went to the trouble of identifying them in his image at http://www.pbase.com/rolfolsen/image/143968106/original

Originally Posted by topheart

Great Images and great username - Shiraz!

Cheers,
Tim

hi Tim. thank you. best winegrape variety in the world!

Originally Posted by ghsmith45

As always, great images Ray. I particularly like the Sombrero. Getting all that delicate detail in the disc is no easy task.
Geoff

Thanks very much Geoff. It took a fair bit of time to get reasonable data - I had to discard frames with poor seeing, so a lot of bits ended up on the cutting room floor.

Originally Posted by Eden

Beautiful work, Ray. Two of my favourite targets captured in splendid detail.

Mine favourites too Eden, along with NGC253 - thanks for your comments

Originally Posted by Rex

Woooooow! two absolutely superb images Ray. Both showing amazing detail and very natural. Something to aspire too.

Hi Rex. thank you for your very generous comment.

Regards Ray