Eta Carinae Mosaic (work in progress)

[RayOfLight]

Hi all,

How's everyone???

It's been quite a while since I last posted, having attended the amazingly unforgettable star party in Lostock (January 2007, thanks Mike and organizing crew for such a great event!), catching up with work load, and finally settling down to imaging once again this season.

Been doing a rework on Eta Carinae (in H-alpha) using the Pentax 75SDHF and ST2KXM camera from my apartment balcony. This time, I increased the sub exposures to 15 minutes for each sub frame. The resulting current mosaic consist of 7-8 panels with each panel being a cumulative stack of sub-frames totalling about an hour each. It was challenging imaging on various nights with different transparency, and handling the gradients, especially with this object so low in the southern horizon from the equatorial regions like where I stay.

Nevertheless, here it is:
http://remuscj.1111mb.com/temp/etac.jpg

Hoping for more clear nights, to extend the mosaic further where necessary!

[iceman (Mike)]

Hey Remus! Long time no chat! Great to see you again.

Was great to meet you and your friends at IISAC2007! It sure was a memorable event.

That's a magnificent image! The full version will be incredible!

[RayOfLight]

Hey Iceman! ;P

Yeah, been quite a while! Gee...kinda miss ya guys already, not forgetting the Obsession Experience too! Wished I could attend the South Pacific, but running low on funds, gotta save up, and start over. :-)

I have another southern object in the works, will post it up soon.

The Eta Carinae is at a low resolution, perhaps when I obtain more data, I will put up at higher res.

Cheers!

[RB (Andrew)]

Hi Remus,

That is a beautiful work of art !!!

[jase (Jason)]

Magnificent mosaic. Well processed and stitched. Looking forward to seeing the final.

[Ric]

Hi Remus, blimey thats awesome, you've done an excellent job with it so far.
I'm looking forward to the finished images.

Cheers

[richardo (Rich)]

Hi Remus,
stunning, seamless mosaic!
Love the dramatic contrast that only narrow band filters can produce.
The Keyhole area is a brilliant object for such wave lengths and considering your latitude,.... this is excellent!!!
If your shooting through Light pollution then the extra sub exposure time is well worth the effort if your mount can handle it.... as is shown in this WIP...
Look forward to the finished version.

Thanks for sharing
Cheers
Rich

[Sausageman (Mike Boggan)]

Wow Remus!
I am blown away by that.
Well done.

Mike

[DobDobDob (Ron)]

Absolutely stunning, a masterpiece

[Ken]

Hi Remus Beautiful mosaic you have put some time into this well done. I think Iwill sell my rural 5 acres and buy a apartment with a balcony.
clear skies
Ken

[bluescope]

I have seen and downloaded many images of Eta Carinae and none have shown the depth of detail and wide field of your mosaic .... congratulations !

[stringscope (Ian)]

Absolutely magnificient Remus

Cheers,

[sheeny (Al)]

Stunning Remus!

Al.