M20

[Peter Ward]

Continuing with the up-close-and personal views , here is this year's take on the Triffid nebula with my new camera.

Taken from the glowing skies of *Emerald City.

The link is here

If you look closely, you'll likely notice a minor equipment glitch which caused some weird shaped star profiles...sigh....thankfully there is a new Version of MaxImCCD is coming out soon which should address this.

*for our younger members...it's the title of a satirical play (and subsequent film) by David Williamson

[marc4darkskies (Marcus)]

In honour of your heart shaped stars .... There's a curious diffraction pattern around your stars too - is that part of the same problem?

As for the image as a whole - what's to say except - excellent, I love it!

BTW, I have a serious case of Alluna envy!!

[Peter Ward]

Originally Posted by marc4darkskies

In honour of your heart shaped stars .... There's a curious diffraction pattern around your stars too - is that part of the same problem?

As for the image as a whole - what's to say except - excellent, I love it!

BTW, I have a serious case of Alluna envy!!

The problem seems to be with the latest generation of Maxim's handling of the AO-X...which now randomly deflects the guide star to 80-90% of the limit in the guide box.
Diffraction Ltd. tell me there is a fix in the works...

I appreciate many might see this as a "first world" problem

That said the resolution is still good. The close triple at the Triffid's core
is resolved and the two snail's head antennae (seen at 3 o'clock) are nicely resolved.

Interestingly with standard guiding, the stars became round but predictably get fatter FWHM's at the same time.... sigh...swings and roundabouts!

P.S. I've added a h-alpha image to my m8 rendering. Given the FL used and seeing
in the previous version of MaxIm... the Alluna's stars seem round enough prior to the update.

[multiweb (Marc)]

Really nice close up Peter. That's the bugbear of ultra sharp optics and tight stars at long FL. Everything shows as it's not hidden in bloated stars anymore. Hope they come up with a quick fix in the next release for your AO.

[Placidus (Mike and Trish)]

A joyous result. The resolution of the tight bright double component of the triple is amazing. The Herbig-Haro jet and the evaporative gaseous globule (snail's antennae) are perfect.

[spiezzy]

WOW peter that is a cracking image of M20 especially from the Shire i know how Light polluted it is up there you are getting great images love it
cheers Pete

[Peter Ward]

Originally Posted by spiezzy

WOW peter that is a cracking image of M20 especially from the Shire i know how Light polluted it is up there you are getting great images love it
cheers Pete

Ta. M20 is brilliantly placed for Sydney observers as it almost goes through the zenith as it transits....decidedly less glow to image through. That said, I'll think I'll re-shoot this one at F6...which is a wussy FL of 2800mm in my case...

Originally Posted by Placidus

A joyous result. The resolution of the tight bright double component of the triple is amazing. The Herbig-Haro jet and the evaporative gaseous globule (snail's antennae) are perfect.

Joyous? I like that! And gaseous globules?....here is me thinking Herbig-Haro objects were some sort of confectionary

Originally Posted by multiweb

Really nice close up Peter. That's the bugbear of ultra sharp optics and tight stars at long FL. Everything shows as it's not hidden in bloated stars anymore. Hope they come up with a quick fix in the next release for your AO.

Thanks Marc, indeed at these focal lengths, you sometimes see Cindy Crawford has a mole...damm...

[gregbradley]

Wow the Lagoon shot is superb with the glowing red Ha ridges. That looks terrific and the colour is deep and saturate without being over the top.

The Trifid is great too, obviously except for the odd triangular stars. A shame as its near perfect.

Keeping gear working is an ongoing project I find. A stable system is not that easy to achieve with constant improvements being offered that may be a step backwards like smartphone updates or Windows updates.

Greg.

[Peter Ward]

Originally Posted by gregbradley

Wow the Lagoon shot is superb with the glowing red Ha ridges. That looks terrific and the colour is deep and saturate without being over the top.

The Trifid is great too, obviously except for the odd triangular stars. A shame as its near perfect.

Keeping gear working is an ongoing project I find. A stable system is not that easy to achieve with constant improvements being offered that may be a step backwards like smartphone updates or Windows updates.

Greg.

Thanks...my Obs PC is Windoze10 based...and it's annoying constant updates..with a recent revision causing TheSkyX to crash. I might look at Bisque's Linux based box if I ever go remote. I suspect they did not go down that path because Windoze was so reliable. SBIG's original CCDops is my go-to when all else fails. Can't kill it with a stick....and was working well with the AO-X last night..until the clouds rolled in

[cometcatcher (Kevin)]

Geez, that M8 shot is something else. So 3D like. I don't think I've seen better.

[Nikolas (Nik)]

Very preety

[Atmos (Colin)]

Very nice M20 Peter, I’m guessing the AO is buzzing around a bit to create triangular stars. It doesn’t really distract from a fine image but it is good that you know the cause of the issue

[Andy01 (Andy)]

Looks great Peter,
Nitpicking - there's some halos around the stars as well. I guess that's a side effect of what everyone is talking about ^

[Peter Ward]

Originally Posted by Andy01

Looks great Peter,
Nitpicking - there's some halos around the stars as well. I guess that's a side effect of what everyone is talking about ^

Ta...I was not really happy with the image..so I re-worked the data...pushed the curves a little less, plus some selective masking...which I'm not a fan of...but it made for a prettier result. (now uploaded to the same URL)

Originally Posted by Atmos

Very nice M20 Peter, I’m guessing the AO is buzzing around a bit to create triangular stars. It doesn’t really distract from a fine image but it is good that you know the cause of the issue

Gave them some panel beating just now...(as above)

Originally Posted by Nikolas

Very preety

Originally Posted by cometcatcher

Geez, that M8 shot is something else. So 3D like. I don't think I've seen better.

Very kind.

[gregbradley]

Originally Posted by Peter Ward

Thanks...my Obs PC is Windoze10 based...and it's annoying constant updates..with a recent revision causing TheSkyX to crash. I might look at Bisque's Linux based box if I ever go remote. I suspect they did not go down that path because Windoze was so reliable. SBIG's original CCDops is my go-to when all else fails. Can't kill it with a stick....and was working well with the AO-X last night..until the clouds rolled in

I have had times I lost data when Wins 10 update was set to occur at 3am. Happened a few times before I tracked it down.

Greg.

[Slawomir (Suavi)]

Great Trifid Peter - I particularly like the close up