Last nights effort and a surprise

leon · #1 08-01-2008, 01:28 PM

Hi Guys,

Another clear night, so what do you do, image of coarse, and wreck yourself in the process, forgot what bed looks like.

Anyway I also managed to get a surprise in one of the subs of the Trantula Neb, I think it must be an Idridium Flare, however could not find one at that time on Heavens Above, it was 1.34 am today.

As usual i went crazy, and took on three objects,

I know i should concentrate on one object, but the temptation is just to great when it is so clear.

Here we have three wide fields, all are un-cropped and all are ISO 400,

Trantula is at 3mins each an 8 images, with the sixth capturing the flare, M42 is 12 exposures at 1 min, and Horse Head Neb is 6 exposures at 5 mins each.

The seeing was pretty good, but i feel i may have lost the focus on the Trantula.

All images were taken through the Tak 106 and with the Canon 5D on the G11 and auto guided, flat fielded, and ICNR for darks, processed in Image Plus, and Levels in PS2.

Hope you like them , but feel free to comment either way.

Leon

gbeal · #2 08-01-2008, 02:26 PM

Not much I can say apart from what you have already mentioned, and I have been guilty of the same problem, too many objects in the one hit.
Having said that (and I am being overly critical) they are all lovely shots, ones which you should be justly proud.
Gary

Ric · #3 08-01-2008, 02:50 PM

A very nice selection, I dont think three is too many if your having an all-nighter.

Cheers

leon · #4 08-01-2008, 03:14 PM

Thanks Ric and Gary, your comments are appreciated, don't know about this all nighter stuff, I'm getting old you know.

Leon

bojan · #5 08-01-2008, 03:41 PM

Beautiful shots...

ballaratdragons (Ken) · #6 08-01-2008, 04:07 PM

I like all of them, Leon. Nice shooting!

Yep, I would say that's an Iridian Flare. It may not be listed, but it certainly looks like one. A meteor leaves a continuos thin trail, space Junk tends to leave a slightly wobbly or bright, faint, bright, faint etc trail, and Iridiums brighten then fade like yours does.

astroron (Ron) · #7 08-01-2008, 11:49 PM

Leon I did not see these images before I made my reply in your other post.
It could not be an iridium flare because they reflect the suns light, and are in a fairly low earth orbit.
The Sun would have been on the othe side of the globe at that time of the morning so could not reflect on the satalite, also the streak is very small and not very brord.
It was probably a meteorite or a bit of space junk.
Visual observers see these thing in their eyepieces quite often in a nights observing.
The images are very good, and your time was well spent.

Keep up the good work.

Regards Ron

Hagar (Doug) · #8 09-01-2008, 12:39 AM

Great shots Leon. Get a few images with similar streaks. Don't know what they are. Love the horsie!!

EzyStyles (Eric) · #9 09-01-2008, 01:58 AM

beautiful shots leon. i think it is an iridian flare there. you have caught alot of h-alphas for an unmodded dslr in the horsehead pic! great stuff.

iceman (Mike) · #10 09-01-2008, 05:55 AM

Definitely not an iridium flare - i'd say a meteor.
Excellent work, nice images.

jase (Jason) · #11 09-01-2008, 07:36 AM

You should be very pleased with these images Leon. I think they're looking good. Longer subs and more of them seems the next logical step (along with taking flats). Meteors, space junk, satellites are common. When I'm taking 15 min subs, I typically pick up at least one in every three subs. Sometimes I get really unlucky and get three streaks in one sub. They don't pose an issue when you combine the data as they are flagged as outlier pixels and removed. Acquiring data underneath a flight path would be an issue.

Garyh · #12 09-01-2008, 08:28 AM

Nice work Leon!
Looking at the time you took the LMC one I would say its a meteorite as you will only get a bright iridium flare a few hours before and after sunrise, sunset and not at 1.34am.
Nice capture!

dugnsuz (Doug) · #13 09-01-2008, 09:27 AM

I love the Flame /Horsehead composition - it really benefits from that slightly wider field you've got.
Looks really smooth and well processed too (just a bit vignetting).
I've got to get out tonight!!!!
Your setup produces inspirational results leon.
(with a little help from the operator too

)
Cheers
Doug

leon · #14 09-01-2008, 01:06 PM

Many thanks for your kind comments and encouragement on these images, it appears that it is 50/50 on a flare or a meteor,

I think i will go with the meteor

I think i will have another go at these objects and try, as suggestedl, longer and more subs, but only one object per night.

Leon