[Placidus (Mike and Trish)]

Originally Posted by rustigsmed

wow excellent work M&T!
almost looks like you used some Ha with that shot!

Russ

Thanks, Russ. We've experimented successfully with some galaxies like NGC 300 and Barnard's Gx adding H-alpha in as red, but it takes ridiculously long exposures. Very tempting though.

Originally Posted by alan meehan

My that's a wonderful shot I love the colours in there well done M&T
thanks ALAN

Cheers, Alan!

Originally Posted by Atmos

Looks great? It has everything, not quite so fuzzy galaxy in the foreground, mis faint galaxy or two and then a bunch of faint fussies. It even has a star on the RHS that almost hurts to look at!

Thanks Colin. Fewer faint fuzzies than say around Grus, but still surprisingly many given that they're being seen through the milky way.

Originally Posted by Tony_

Great image Mike and Trish.

There's also a green spot that looks like a PN above the 2 bright orange stars on the right. It's quite faint - I wonder if it's catalogued?

Regards,
Tony.

Thank you Tony. Sadly, the green spot seems to be an artifact. Still tracking it down, but probably to do with flats or darks needing updating.

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

That's a great result guys, lovely fidelity and colour - a real 20" CDK in self built stainless steel observatory using Berthon-Jones control, worthy shot

No animal shapes to really see though huh?

Mike

Thanks, Mike, you're generous and encouraging.

Originally Posted by plantnerd

Splendid image I can see the planetary nebula also. What are the random red blotches in the background noise or processing artifacts?

Rats! You guys have sharp eyes! As mentioned, pretty sure that the PN and the random red blotches are artifacts. The Aspen CG16M (or at least ours) occasionally imagines vaguely star-like artifacts that are transiently consistent from sub to sub, either in the lights or (worse) in the darks. If we dither by a huge amount between images, they go away with stacking and data rejection, but I think we're under-dithering. Buying a better camera is another option, but Santa would need serious buttering up.

Many thanks,
Mike and Trish