the sky was bright (the local wharf was being used to load a ship - with about a megawatt of lights blazing), but the seeing was good at around 2 arcsec (yahoo!). Consequently, the dim extended star lanes got a bit lost in shot noise, but the detail available in the core was pretty good. I used the ESO image as a guide for the colour - a bit more saturation than I would normally use, but the ESO image looks OK, so what do I know.
the cropped image is presented scaled x0.5 to make the star lanes more easily visible and in full scale for the core.
grateful for any feedback. Thanks for looking. Regards Ray
Makes me jealous. I want a good image of the antenna so I commissioned my photographer (my son Trevor) to do it on the weekend at Wiruna. Saddly it was raining and we did not go. Oh well try again next month.
Hi Ray,
Absolutely fantastic !! I've never seen so much details in an image of the Antennae as I am seeing in your image. I assume you imaged with your GSO Newt 12", am I right ?
That is really excellent, some great resolution in the core area. Congratulations on capturing such a great Antennae image.
IMO saturation could certainly be boosted though, but that's of course a matter of individual taste.
I'm working on this one at the moment and it's really an amazing galaxy pair and an interesting background field too. For example, there is a cool looking distant galaxy cluster at the end of the short tidal stream. Only got 14 hours so far though, so it's nowhere near finished for me
This is such a tough galaxy to image, just remarkable detail.
Cheers,
Justin.
Thanks Justin. it was hard to try to balance the signal and noise in the dim bits - I was pleased with the core detail though.
Quote:
Originally Posted by pvelez
Ray
That is super - a wonderful image
Pete
Thanks a lot Pete
Quote:
Originally Posted by RickS
Very nice, Ray! The level of detail is great, especially the dust lanes in the core.
Thanks Rick. lot going on in the core and it doesn't look like other galaxies at all.
Quote:
Originally Posted by strongmanmike
Far out Ray...geez you're not wrong, some great seeing you had there
Great job and nowhere near too saturated could handle a tad more even
Mike
OK, will try some more saturation - seeing is everything eh?
Quote:
Originally Posted by gregbradley
Stunning Ray just stunning.
Greg.
Thanks very much Greg
Quote:
Originally Posted by John Hothersall
Crazy detail of fine dust lanes in the merging galaxies.
John.
Hi John - thanks. sure is a different looking galaxy
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rod771
Far out!! And we're looking at a < 200kb jpeg
Well done
Thanks Rod. the JPEG seems to have "enhanced" the noise structure a bit, but otherwise its OK
Quote:
Originally Posted by allan gould
That's a real keeper Ray, beautifully done.
Allan
Thanks Allan
Quote:
Originally Posted by rogerg
Excellent!
Thank you Roger.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Barrykgerdes
Great image
Makes me jealous. I want a good image of the antenna so I commissioned my photographer (my son Trevor) to do it on the weekend at Wiruna. Saddly it was raining and we did not go. Oh well try again next month.
Barry
thanks Barry. I have been wanting to get a view of these things myself and was really pleased to get some good seeing, even though the sky was pretty bright - better than rain though.
Quote:
Originally Posted by gvanhau
Very nice!!
Can you give tetails of capture? timing, etc?
Geert
Thanks Geert.
sorry, forgot to do so.
250f4 Skywatcher Newtonian with RCC1 and H694 camera on an EQ6
5hrs L @1x1@200sec, 3/4 hrs each R,G,B @2x2@120sec
Quote:
Originally Posted by nandopg
Hi Ray,
Absolutely fantastic !! I've never seen so much details in an image of the Antennae as I am seeing in your image. I assume you imaged with your GSO Newt 12", am I right ?
One more comment: that is a definitive image !
Thanks for sharing,
Fernando
Very generous Fernando - thanks. This was taken with a Skywatcher 250f4 Newtonian that I am in the process of settling in - still have some things to do to it, but it is working pretty well.
Quote:
Originally Posted by graham.hobart
A thrilling picture -one to aspire to. Thanks for sharing
Graham
Hi Graham - thanks for the encouragement
Quote:
Originally Posted by SkyViking
That is really excellent, some great resolution in the core area. Congratulations on capturing such a great Antennae image.
IMO saturation could certainly be boosted though, but that's of course a matter of individual taste.
I'm working on this one at the moment and it's really an amazing galaxy pair and an interesting background field too. For example, there is a cool looking distant galaxy cluster at the end of the short tidal stream. Only got 14 hours so far though, so it's nowhere near finished for me
Thanks Rolf. looking forward to your image - definitely a good megadata candidate. The sky was at least a mag brighter than normal and I haven't yet got enough data to bring out much background stuff, but it was nice to get some good seeing for the core.
Thanks for the comments guys. Have a bit more data from last night ( not high res though) and will try to add it to get the noise down. Regards Ray
That's just superb Ray. was this in just one night?
You're on a roll. Look forward to more.
Cheers
Alistair
Thanks Alistair. Colour was from one night of poor seeing but dark sky, luminance from a night of good seeing with a bright sky. Got some more luminance from a dark but wobbly sky last night, so might be able to add to it. regards Ray
could handle a tad more even 
