Data collected at Glen Aplin under dark skies (approx 7 hours) and at home under crap skies (approx 5 hours).
Scope: GSO RC10 @ f/8, 2000mm FL
Mount: AP900
Camera: Starlight Xpress H-18 mono
Filters: Astrodon E series Gen 2
Guiding: SX AO-LF and Lodestar
Focuser: Atlas
Image scale: 0.56 arcsec/pixel
Exposures: 43x10m L, 21x5m R, 21x5m G, 21x5m B
Processed in PixInsight. This one gave me a lot of grief, especially trying to show the faint "antennae" without emphasizing less desirable features of the data.
Constructive criticism and suggestions gratefully received...
Very nice Rick well done although I'd cut back a bit on curves make it a tad softer and less star halo also you have clipped the black point
I agree - the data is good enough to be worthy of re-processing.
I think the data is clipped too - not just the blackpoint. i.e
from the edge of the galaxy & spiral arms/antennas the
faint haze is cut too quickly instead of feathered.
It's a great photo.
That looks great! You've got some nice resolution there and fantastic colours. As others have said, you can probably boost the faint tails and outer areas a bit, looks like the data is there.
Amazing image, Rick. Very, very well shot and proccessed. We can see with many details the complex and intense collision-union of two galaxies. Very well registered the main joint point, with intense new star formation. And the dispersion of the arms (antennas) due to rules of this collision
Very nice Rick well done although I'd cut back a bit on curves make it a tad softer and less star halo also you have clipped the black point
I spent a lot of time playing with that, Trevor. I agree it's still not ideal and will try some more. More data would help. The antennae are so faint it is hard to bring them out without amplifying other ugliness buried deep in the data. Thanks for the comments!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tandum
That's a stunner Rick. Is that full frame at 2meters?
Thanks, Robin. I did crop but only a small amount.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Octane
That is superb.
H
Thanks, H!
Quote:
Originally Posted by alpal
I agree - the data is good enough to be worthy of re-processing.
I think the data is clipped too - not just the blackpoint. i.e
from the edge of the galaxy & spiral arms/antennas the
faint haze is cut too quickly instead of feathered.
It's a great photo.
Thanks, Alpal. I'd really love to collect more data on this target. I think it would help a lot with the processing. Still, it's all good experience and I'm sure I can learn to do better.
Quote:
Originally Posted by OneCosmos
Nice job Rick - better than I remember.
Thanks, Chris. It was a great couple of nights!
Quote:
Originally Posted by SkyViking
That looks great! You've got some nice resolution there and fantastic colours. As others have said, you can probably boost the faint tails and outer areas a bit, looks like the data is there.
Thanks, Rolf. I appreciate the comments from everyone which will help with the inevitable repro
Quote:
Originally Posted by jsmoraes
Amazing image, Rick. Very, very well shot and proccessed. We can see with many details the complex and intense collision-union of two galaxies. Very well registered the main joint point, with intense new star formation. And the dispersion of the arms (antennas) due to rules of this collision
Thanks very much, Jorge. It's a fascinating target!
It's always the age-old problem I guess Rick - do you gather mega-amounts of data in your precious dark sky time, or concentrate on gradually learning and pushing further as you add additional hardware and techniques.
From all comments it certainly looks like you could really do to town with hours more data on this one. So many objects, so little time though!
It's always the age-old problem I guess Rick - do you gather mega-amounts of data in your precious dark sky time, or concentrate on gradually learning and pushing further as you add additional hardware and techniques.
From all comments it certainly looks like you could really do to town with hours more data on this one. So many objects, so little time though!
Rob,
I guess I'll just muddle along as best I can until my wife lets me have a couple of huge scopes and an observatory out in the country
Thanks, Geoff! It was great to have two nights in a row at Glen Aplin. Not having to set up the second night and then having everything work perfectly was such a pleasure. Must be what having an observatory is like
Very very nice. Background though is a tad black clipped and some slight elongation in the stars. Was that the polar alignment seeing as you were out in the field?
Very sharp though. Better than mine with a CDK17 at home.
Beautiful - well done! I love that ultra smooth (but not out of focus) look. Yep, I agree that the second night in the field when all you have to do is switch on power is pure bliss.
Very very nice. Background though is a tad black clipped and some slight elongation in the stars. Was that the polar alignment seeing as you were out in the field?
Very sharp though. Better than mine with a CDK17 at home.
Greg.
Thanks, Greg. I'm not sure whether I might have managed to damage the stars somehow in the processing. When I did the PSF estimation for deconvolution I picked 60-70 stars and the average aspect ratio was up in the high 0.9s and there wasn't any consistency in rotation angle. That said, I'm sure my polar alignment wasn't perfect. I get so little time under dark skies that I don't spend a lot of time tweaking it. I'll see if I can fix the stars (and the black clipping) in my next repro attempt.
Quote:
Originally Posted by naskies
Beautiful - well done! I love that ultra smooth (but not out of focus) look. Yep, I agree that the second night in the field when all you have to do is switch on power is pure bliss.
Thanks, Dave. I hope you're going to get some quality dark sky time once semester is over!
