NGC 5139 from NZ

[loc46south (Geoffrey)]

Hasn't the weather been terrible over the last few months, I was beginning to wonder if the sky still existed. In desperation I set out to find a new dark site and one way to beat the clouds is to get above them. Taken from 4800ft a test image of NGC 5139 - the site shows real promise.

ED120 Equinox
ST2000XCM - 5min Colour
ST8XME - 3 min Luminance
Resolution 1.67 Arc Sec Pixel
G-11 Gemini

Large image http://www.pbase.com/loc46south/image/97912938

Cheers
Geof Wingham

[multiweb (Marc)]

Very nice pic Geoffrey. Great colors. One of the best.

[Liz]

Beautiful image Geoffrey A ball of diamonds!!
We are so lucky to have the best glob in our skies

[Imon (Simon)]

perfect shot

[Remus (Tom)]

Love the clarity and colours. Well done!

[Lester]

Well resolved, nice image.

[loc46south (Geoffrey)]

Thanks guys for the comments - hopefully this year the skies will clear and we can all get some imaging done.

Cheers
Geof Wingham

[Paul Haese]

Nice image, I would like to see a larger resolution though. Star colours look good too.

[loc46south (Geoffrey)]

Hi Paul - the original is on PBase (Link Supplied in original post) - it is at 1.69 arc sec pixel -

[telecasterguru (Frank)]

Fantastic image.

[gregbradley]

Great image.

You have a nice advantage there with that sort of altitude.
In Aussie we'd practical have to be on the top of our tallest mountains to achieve that. And that would mean paying for a lift ticket probably!

Greg.

[loc46south (Geoffrey)]

Hi Greg - the big advantage is the huge increase in SNR - I calculate it at over 30% - no wonder the imagers in the USA are into New Mexico Skys sites - they are up around 6,000 ft. The big disadvantage is in the wind - it blows constantly 50kph to 80kph. NGC 5139 was taken as a test image to compare with others taken at different sites and altitudes.

Cheers
Geof Wingham

[gregbradley]

That's interesting.

Wind can be a pain. Refractors generally are less susceptible to wind than compound scopes though.

Greg.