The run of clear weather lately, that has enabled many of us to finally get out for multiple nights aaaand given us all hope of a El Nino coming also gave me the opportunity to finally hit something properly from Eagleview Observatory
So blessed with around seven clear nights over the last New Moon period, I decided to go up (I'm still not setup for remote operation ) and hammer the famous Antennae galaxies in Corvus, with something at least approaching a serious exposure time, to try and finally utilise the excellent conditions at Eagleview, to really showcase something to the full. In the end I managed to get up there for four of those clear nights and accumulated nearly 24hrs of exposure across LRGB&Ha filters....and it was fun to be back in the long exposure multiple night project seat again ..hic! .
Enjoying seeing FWHM of between 1.6"-2.1" over the period of Lum collection (psst! no BlurEx ) coupled with the dark skies, the result is a very deep fairly detailed view of these enigmatic interacting galaxies and (referencing Rolf Olsens data confirmed via photometric calibration of the integrated FITS luminance file against the USNO catalogues, see below) one that reaches a stella limiting magnitude of around Mag 25 and reveals an extensive faint flocculant outer halo enveloping the whole spectacular gravitational dance, cool
One of the benefits of a true dark sky site is the lack of gradients present in your data, no gradient removal was required for this image!
PS. The nature of the faintness here makes viewing on a good calibrated monitor in a darkened room worth it I recon...hope you enjoy
Also worth comparing to my last effort on this pair, back in 2013 from just outside suburban Canberra at 600m AMSL, with the same scope but with bigger pixels and inferior skies, in terms of darkness, transparency and seeing (only 6.5hrs Lum though)
NB: Worth mentioning also, the masterful Rolf Olsen, who is in a class of his own when it comes to long exposure deep imaging, did a similar (75hr!) project on the Antennae, several years ago now and as it happens, using a very similar setup to mine, so, I had a great reference with which to compare and confirm my results, thanks Rolf!
Mike
Last edited by strongmanmike; 05-05-2023 at 09:45 AM.
Ace of spades shot Michael!!
You’re back in your element dishing up these sort of space shots. Always in awe with the deep imaging your setup produces afforded by of course the big sky of your obs.
Credit to ya.
Mike,
The image says it all
Bloody unbelievable
That monster rig of yours and your Obs on top of the world is simply incredible
Enjoy every minute up there !!
Thanks a lot guys, very happy with the project, was good to finally get a proper decent image under my Eagleview belt, one worthy of the site quality
Trev, you talking about this image t'was taken on the last night of image capture for the Antennae, by my life long friend and astro buddy Attila...he and I attached ..we had a great night of observing through our 18" F4.1 Dob while the Antennae photons were being collected
Mike
Last edited by strongmanmike; 30-04-2023 at 12:25 AM.
That's a super long exposure for you Mike ... and it's paid off! It's a gorgeous image! Wonderfully deep, detailed and colourful. The somewhat fluro look offends my saturation sensibilities though but, so what! Right?
That's a super long exposure for you Mike ... and it's paid off! It's a gorgeous image! Wonderfully deep, detailed and colourful.
Thanks a lot Marcus...and good to see you posting again
Quote:
The somewhat fluro look offends my saturation sensibilities though but, so what! Right?
He he, yeah, yeah, I knooow , I do like my colour, huh?.. I think its Tony and Daphne Hallas's fault, all those years ago . many didn't (and don't) like their penchant for saturated colour either. Dunno if you checked out all my links in the post but I think I was heavily influenced by the HST shot in the comparison too .. I just like the strong delineated (some peoples flouro...what's'a wrong'a with'a flouro'a anyway'a..Maama Mia?) colour I guess?..must just be a thaang ...yeah so what?
Amazing beautiful image Mike, you legend,,
I always enjoy the hubble comparisons but I often also google search for other images 'Antennae galaxies' for comparisons aswell,, and yours is simply above by leaps and bounds, gorgeous star colours, the extending 'Tails' have such solid signal and de-tail, -pun- and obviousely the deep background is full of galaxies and even some galactic clusters by-the-looks,
Hmm Ive said anough, Totally exquisit champ
Amazing beautiful image Mike, you legend,,
I always enjoy the hubble comparisons but I often also google search for other images 'Antennae galaxies' for comparisons aswell,, and yours is simply above by leaps and bounds, gorgeous star colours, the extending 'Tails' have such solid signal and de-tail, -pun- and obviousely the deep background is full of galaxies and even some galactic clusters by-the-looks,
Hmm Ive said anough, Totally exquisit champ
Thanks a lot Bob, really glad you enjoyed it, positive coments like yours makes the long hours worth it
Great results Mike,
that's a lot of hard work too - 24 hours and in the cold weather at altitude!
I also think there's a tad too much colour saturation
but that's subjective.
What comes next? -
I know you're itching to take the Sombrero - LOL
Great results Mike,
that's a lot of hard work too - 24 hours and in the cold weather at altitude!
I also think there's a tad too much colour saturation
but that's subjective.
What comes next? -
I know you're itching to take the Sombrero - LOL
cheers
Allan
Aaaah yes, I aaam a little too flamboyant...sometimes it's about creating punch, shazam, pow!
Wasn't all hard work, not that cold either really, two of the four nights only got down to 5-6C, positively balmy ...one hit zeroC though, with a very light frost
Quote:
Originally Posted by Andy01
Top job, have another beer, you deserve it!
Fuuuunny yoooou shoooould saaaay that Andy....arhem...hic!
Mike
Last edited by strongmanmike; 30-04-2023 at 06:47 PM.
Wow, that is a top notch image Mike! Great detail and colour, and you picked up the outer halo. A just reward for all of your hard work. CS, Mat
Thanks a lot Mat It was good to be out for multiple nights in quick succession again, been a while, got some visual observing in too, with the 18" Dob...can only imagine what living in a region like the Atacama would be like...it would kill me but be worth the risk
Nice shot Mike. I like the colour balance but maybe it looks a little fluro like others have said. It's mainly in the reds and magentas to me. The blues look good and star colours look nice to me. Background looks an even charcoal too.
also gave me the opportunity to finally hit something properly from Eagleview Observatory 
) and hammer the famous Antennae galaxies in Corvus, with something at least approaching a serious exposure time, to try and finally utilise the excellent conditions at Eagleview, to really showcase something to the full. In the end I managed to get up there for four of those clear nights and accumulated nearly 24hrs of exposure across LRGB&Ha filters....and it was fun to be back in the long exposure multiple night project seat again 
..hic! .
) coupled with the dark skies, the result is a very deep fairly detailed view of these enigmatic interacting galaxies and (referencing Rolf Olsens data confirmed via photometric calibration of the integrated FITS luminance file against the USNO catalogues, see below) one that reaches a stella limiting magnitude of around Mag 25 and reveals an extensive faint flocculant outer halo enveloping the whole spectacular gravitational dance, cool 
, I do like my colour, huh?.. I think its 
.. I just like the strong delineated (some peoples flouro...what's'a wrong'a with'a flouro'a anyway'a..Maama Mia?) colour I guess?..must just be a thaang 
but be worth the risk 
