[Shiraz (Ray)]

Originally Posted by clive milne

Ray, the guiding, processing, sharpening, colour balance and composition are near to perfection.
This, is in my humble opinion, getting close to a high water mark - in terms of extracting results from a given matrix of equipment/budget/local conditions, available exposure time, etc. (compression artefacts, not withstanding) Extra exposure will get you in Rolf's domain.

But anyway, pretty much nailed it.

My hope is that you would consider turning your sights on less frequently imaged territory.

Well done.
~c

thanks very much Clive. would be nice to get some more exposure, but there are too many other interesting things out there.

Originally Posted by Peter Ward

A delightful result.

Well done

thanks very much Peter.

Originally Posted by RickS

Sharp detail and tastefully processed. An excellent 253, Ray

thanks a lot Rick!

Originally Posted by Camelopardalis

Fantastic Ray

hi Dunk - thanks very much.

Originally Posted by DJT

Nice image Ray, that's a tasty little CCD.

Interesting faint stuff as well.

thanks David. yep, the camera works like it should. agree, it is great to see the really deep space stuff coming out of the noise a little bit.

Originally Posted by cometcatcher

That's a beauty!

Thanks very much Kevin!

Originally Posted by Placidus

Brilliant! Pin sharp, beautiful colour and contrast.

thanks M&T. appreciated.

Originally Posted by Atmos

Absolutely brilliant Ray! I have been waiting for you to post it

I never thought it was a galaxy cluster either, to me it looks like a starburst non-barred spiral galaxy. Learn something new

thanks Colin. It must be a very compact cluster, but I guess that it is one.

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

Yep, excellent! Not withstanding some nice wider field shots and several other great narrow field results.....overall, probably the best 253 posted on IIS to my eye maybe even pipping Marcus Davies for the title which is also a purler ...although as far as actual details revealed, a careful blink comparison of the two shows a tight race

You demonstrate well that under Aussie skies remarkable results are possible with pretty modest gear, throwing the excuse of "but my gear isn't expensive" well and truly into the cop-out basket...if you understand the fundamentals and have a nack for processing of course and a long focal length is not required, just appropriate image scale.

Mike

thanks very much Mike. well, I have always believed that seeing was the main limitation, provided that the scope is big enough. agree, focal length by itself is unimportant - seeing, aperture and image scale are the important parameters.

I used Marcus' beaut image as one of the benchmarks - if you think that I got anywhere near it that is great.

Originally Posted by marc4darkskies

A beautiful result Ray! Top class resolution for sure!

Cheers, Marcus

Hi Marcus, thanks for that!

Originally Posted by multiweb

Great image scale and details. Awesome shot.

thanks you Marc - appreciated.

regards Ray