Whilst taking pics of the Helix nebula last night something strange happened.
One of the subs has a striking "feature"
I'm unsure as to what it could be, it seems too small to be a plane, but too large to be a satellite. Anyway according to heavens above no major pieces of space hardware should have traveled through the frame.
It's a 'tumbling' satellite Stuart.
If you magnify the image in PS and boost the levels and sharpen you will pickup slight twists in the trail.
I was just about to post pretty much the same opinion, but I see that Reocket Boy beat me to it... you can see the twist in the original image. I suppose that there is no chance that it might be an ion trail from a meteor, the initial flash would overpower any after image?
It's a 'tumbling' satellite Stuart.
If you magnify the image in PS and boost the levels and sharpen you will pickup slight twists in the trail.
Thanks RB,
I thought it should be, but it's really big then. Most satellites I have seen come up as point trails, no bigger than stars. I tried to image the ISS with a DMK at native focal length and I reckon that the two objects are in the same ball park sizewise. The DMK gives a magnification factor of 357 (FL/Pixel size), whereas the SBig gives one of 220, I have a focal reducer at 0.75 for the deep sky shots.
Now without checking the actual frames, these two seem to be of similar size on screen, which would make this about 2/3 the size of the ISS, I'll measure the ISS frames tonight when I get home.
Of course we cannot adjust for orbit size, but I think the ISS is in quite a low orbit??
Still, it won't be as good as yours, but I don't have a 24" RCOS either.
I wouldn't jump to that conclusion. The 24" RCOS simply provides image scale. You've got some excellent looking Ha data to work with. Actually, I'm more interested in how you'll manage the emission lines. As you've realised, it takes some work to extract the SII data on this target as its not exactly strong. I ended up blending some Ha data into the SII (approx 20%). Not ideal for the narrowband purist, but when all you're trying to do is create something aesthetic, you'll probably go to great lengths to make it happen otherwise you'll end up with a green helix if your pallette is SHO.
Also, Stuart, I know you're a user of CCDStack (as are a few others on this forum). While I don't use CCDStack (yet), I sat in on a workshop hosted by Stan Moore at AIC. He's developing a new version of CCDStack which is marked as being called CCDStack Unlimited. It will apparently address the memory problems users encounter when utilising large stacks and large files. It will be a true x64 build, not thunked calls. This is based on other work he's been doing on lucky imaging (stacking mega data) - which he also mentioned. More info can be found here - http://www.stanmooreastro.com/Intens...calImaging.htm
CCDStack Unlimited (if it keeps this name) is expected early next year. No firm dates were provided.
Just had a look at the poll results, it's neck and neck between a plane and the USS Enterprize, which is strange, because I thought that it was an aircraft carrier. However according to the all knowing Wikipedia, their both USS Enterprise, go figure, the Yanks finally spell something with an "s" that's supposed to have one in it! I'll fix the spelling in the poll if I can...
Make sure you come back and post your Helix when done. Should be a pearler.
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