YAfter acquiring our 100acre property high up in the Tinderry Mountains 56km south of Canberra, back in late May 2021, then turning the first sod for the future Eagleview Observatory on 7 Dec 2021 and then the long and complex logistical project to complete Eagleview Observatory and then when finally completed, being frustrated by all the extra cloud cover caused by the La Nina effect here in eastern Australia, shock horror, I was eeeeventually lucky enough to be able to get enough clear sky time over the current New Moon, to cobble together the very first colour image to come out of Eagleview Observatory! phew!..and Woohoo!
While the cloud cover has been considerably greater in recent times, due to La bloody Nina, when it actually is clear, the other important atmospheric qualities have proven to be excellent at Eagleview, with both sky transparency and seeing conditions revealed to be of an excellent standard on the mountain. These conditions have been noted on every observing and imaging session over the last 18 months or so too. So, coupled with the excellent Bortle 1/2 dark sky conditions enjoyed at the location and despite the increased La Nina cloud it is proving to be an excellent spot to do astronomy and is a significant improvement in conditions compared to my previous observatory location at Wallaroo, much closer to Canberra.
This first full colour image is composed of only a pretty modest 6.2hrs worth of total exposure, which is not the sort of exposure length I would normally be satisfied with, especially considering it is data from five filters!...but hey, I was very keen to acquire my first full colour image within 12 months after starting the observatory and because I had shot this target with all the same imaging gear, from my previous observatory site, I kept the exposure almost exactly the same, so I could compare results more critically...so...voila, I did it and with a few days to spare! so, here it is!
EDIT: Courtesy of Allan (alpal) and using MaximDL processing software to analyse the FWHM of multiple stars across the raw Luminance frames used in this image, confirms an average FWHM of 1.7" with some figures as low as 1.512" which is excellent and I have seen similarly sharp sub frames on all four imaging session done at Eagleview so far...fingers crossed this proves common place up there!
Mike
Now, we just need to go back into drought, with much less clouds ....
Last edited by strongmanmike; 04-12-2022 at 09:01 AM.
Hi Mike,
that's looking great.
It must be so good to be finally getting some images from your new observatory.
I hope it's exceeding your expectations?
What was the FWHM for those sub frames?
Also -
what Ha filter were you using - this one? https://www.astronomik.com/en/photog...cd-filter.html
Fantastic result Mike and a worthwhile outcome at the end of a busy project. Whilst it may have seemed like a long road, to go from getting the keys to producing this image in only 18 months is seriously good
Mike,
Lovely image of a target that some folk probably only dream about capturing
Well done indeed !!
Congratulations, your long journey to the top of that mountain is now finally complete
Happy nights ahead
Looking forward to seeing more amazing images from above the clouds
Cheers
Martin
Congrats Mike and what an incredible image!! Those sky’s look to be absolutely incredible and with the obs up and running I’m excited to see your future projects. The comparison to wallaroo sky conditions is quite stark. Us mere mortals can only dream…
Congrats Mike on your superb image and first light. We've all been following your exciting project and lived along with its progress and it's all paying off for you.
That is a hard object to image in the first place. I have tried this one and a 10 minute sub is typically very faint.
It's one of the nicest southern spirals being such a perfect and symmetrical spiral.
I'll add my own note of congratulations. After following the considerable effort that's gone in to the construction, seeing the first efforts come to light is a fine thing. Well done young man!
I can only imagine what you'll produce as the skies clear and the seeing improves. (I can only hope that the skies clear in my neck of the woods as well.)
Thanks so much everyone for your replies and the well wishes, it's been a fun journey and yes, I have felt the love from many of you, who have been following the progress, it's been great to share it with all of you and Alex, that's a good way of putting it, you are right, I had to maintain the belief, through what at times was some real trepidation and nerves
and Greg, along with MBJ's Placidus Observatory at Euchareena, your wonderful Bigga Observatory has been aspirational and inspirational for me, for a number of years now
Once I have the capabilities of the new observatory up to where they could be and we (ever) eventually start enjoying the next El Nino , it will be gang busters
For those interested, I've added a map to show the relative locations and height of my last observatory in relation to Eagleview and Canberra.
Congrats on your first light image Mike! Long time coming!
Like Allan, I'd be really curious to hear what your raw FWHMs are between the two versions. I tried between Grose Vale and here, but didn't see a huge difference - seeing was too variable in both locations and I haven't been doing much imaging here at all.
Thanks again guys for the nice comments, can't wait to get back out under the Eagleview skies
Quote:
Originally Posted by alpal
What was the FWHM for those sub frames?
Also - what Ha filter were you using
cheers
Allan
Hi Allan, see below re FWHM and I use the 6nm Astronomiks in the Starlightxpress camera.
Quote:
Originally Posted by marc4darkskies
Like Allan, I'd be really curious to hear what your raw FWHMs are between the two versions.
Thanks Marcus.
I use Astroart to do my, camera control, image acquisition, calibration, stacking and main processing and it doesn't have a FWHM measuring option. So, to better illustrate the difference in seeing between the two sites, I went through all my raw 10min sub frames from both sessions on this galaxy and picked the very best raw uncalibrated single 10 min sub frame taken from each location. Interestingly, all seventeen of the 10min sub frames taken from Eagleview, over two nights, were of almost identical quality to the one in the comparison and it was hard to pick the best one out visually, where as the quality varied quite obviously between the sub frames taken over the two nights from Wallaroo.
I use Astroart to do my, camera control, image acquisition, calibration, stacking and main processing and it doesn't have a FWHM measuring option. So, to better illustrate the difference in seeing between the two sites......
Yeah, that looks pretty convincing, as does the darker sky. I know nothing about astroart, but a quick browse of astroart 8 seems to show a tool displaying FWHM . I'd encourage anyone wanting to quantify their seeing conditions to quote FWHM. These days I quote average FWHM in arcsecs for each image I post.
....
