Corona Australis CDK17

gregbradley · #1 09-10-2010, 07:37 AM

The weather around here over the last few months has generally speaking been cloudy or if its clear its short lived.

The beauty though of a permanent setup is I can flip a switch and be imaging really quickly.

I managed to get some imaging done in the last few weeks, not a lot.

Here is Corona Australis. In total I probably imaged about 12 hours but only 2 1/2 was useable due to cloud.

Luckily 17 inches of aperture can add up to a fair amount of light in 2 1/2 hours.

Planewave CDK 17, FLI Proline 16803, Paramount ME, Pegasus pier,
Astrodon Gen 11 LRGB filters.

LRGB 60 30 30 30 all 10 minute subs, lum 1x1 and RGB 2x2, camera at
-35C.

http://www.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/129230013

Here is an earlier image of it with an FSQ106N and STL11 to get the overview:

http://www.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/98010322

Greg.

Stevec35 (Steve) · #2 09-10-2010, 08:30 AM

If you could get a bit more exposure Greg you would have an absolute world beater there. As it is, it's still a very nice Corona Australis with great colour and detail.

Cheers

Steve

gregbradley · #3 09-10-2010, 09:29 AM

Thanks Steve. Yes it does need a bit more to smooth out a bit of noise and add a bit more zing.

If this weather clears I'll add some more. The forecast is not promising though. I suppose its the same in Canberra or is this just east of the ranges?

Greg

multiweb (Marc) · #4 09-10-2010, 10:04 AM

That's a great shot Greg. You can certainly see the potential of the rig. Extreme resolution and great flat field. Looking forward to more.

TrevorW · #5 09-10-2010, 10:07 AM

Good one Greg, it's nice to have a big one that can get the job done !

alexch (Alex) · #6 09-10-2010, 11:42 AM

Very very nice. The cluster is just the icing on the cake

By the way, I noticed two faint lines going across the image.

jjjnettie (Jeanette) · #7 09-10-2010, 12:04 PM

It can be a real challenge, processing this one. There's such a dynamic range.
You've done a wonderful job of it.

desler · #8 09-10-2010, 12:34 PM

Top job that! Very nice indeed and I really like the framing, just works!

Darren

RobF (Rob) · #9 09-10-2010, 04:50 PM

Wow, great stars all across the field.

I've never noticed that bit of red near the blue reflection nebs (under the close double star at right of image). Sure sign of a fab image when you learn something new about the area

gregbradley · #10 10-10-2010, 07:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by multiweb

That's a great shot Greg. You can certainly see the potential of the rig. Extreme resolution and great flat field. Looking forward to more.

Thanks Marc.

I would have posted more but I have had a bad run of weather for the last 2 months. The rig has a lot of potential and I'd like to do a really long exposure of some nice target.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TrevorW

Good one Greg, it's nice to have a big one that can get the job done !

Yes it is. I can get used to this large aperture real fast.

Quote:

Originally Posted by alexch

Very very nice. The cluster is just the icing on the cake

By the way, I noticed two faint lines going across the image.

Thanks Alex. I like the way the cluster turned out and the fact the scope resolved individual stars in the glob. The faint lines no doubt are satellite trails and they often disappear with median combine but in this case they just faded. If I had plenty of data I may have not used those subs. But poor weather meant I threw out something like 8-9 hours of data already.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jjjnettie

It can be a real challenge, processing this one. There's such a dynamic range.
You've done a wonderful job of it.

Thanks Jeanette. From the centre of the core to the dark dust it is a large range.

Quote:

Originally Posted by desler

Top job that! Very nice indeed and I really like the framing, just works!

Darren

Thanks Darren.

I almost didn't image it as I assumed it would not fit and would require a mosaic which I am avoiding at this point (maybe later). Thanks to the large chip it fits.

Quote:

Originally Posted by RobF

Wow, great stars all across the field.

I've never noticed that bit of red near the blue reflection nebs (under the close double star at right of image). Sure sign of a fab image when you learn something new about the area

Yes I noticed that as well. Some sort of planetary nebula or a small neb?

Large aperture is cool. I have begun imaging a galaxy and I stopped counting when I got up to 35 faint background galaxies and that was in less then half the image!

Greg.

strongmanmike (Michael) · #11 10-10-2010, 02:23 PM

It's a beauty Greg and again shows amazing potential for, as Steve C says, some corker images - great image scale and clean crisp look. Just need to get the right weather so you are keeping 8-9hrs and throwing out 2.5

...a dark sky would really help this scope too I think....get it remotely located perhaps?

Mike

Hagar (Doug) · #12 10-10-2010, 05:44 PM

Very nice Greg. Not the usual view of CA but it shows up a lot of the small intricate things the usual wide field misses.
Looking forward to seeing some great stuff from you and this scope.

gregbradley · #13 10-10-2010, 08:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

It's a beauty Greg and again shows amazing potential for, as Steve C says, some corker images - great image scale and clean crisp look. Just need to get the right weather so you are keeping 8-9hrs and throwing out 2.5

...a dark sky would really help this scope too I think....get it remotely located perhaps?

Yes some clear weather would be great at the moment. I can see me taking this scope down to my dark site for a week with a good forecast at the right time. You can get a nice tripod for the Paramount that isn't that expensive.

Mike

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hagar

Very nice Greg. Not the usual view of CA but it shows up a lot of the small intricate things the usual wide fiels misses.
Looking forward to seeing some great stuff from you and this scope.

The long focal length just fits it in and really it could easily be a mosaic like Martin did. Cheers Doug.

Greg.

gregbradley · #14 12-10-2010, 01:07 AM

It made Anacortes Picture of the Day:

http://www.astromart.com/classifieds/

I also got some clear skies tonight and took about another 2 hours worth under very good conditions.

Greg.

Martin Pugh · #15 12-10-2010, 02:23 AM

Thanks for posting these images with the new scope Greg. As you know, I hope to buy my 17" CDK next year.

While the image could do with a lot more exposure (get rid of those satellite trails), the potential of the scope is on full display here. The fact that you are using a 16803 camera, I am impressed with the stellar shapes at the edge of the FOV (a pet hate of mine).

I see the image is 2000 x 1979 pix, so I assume you reduced it by half for web purposes. Doubled up, that only leaves about 96 pix all round, so very good indeed.

Are you able to post a full sized luminance FIT?

Nice image mate

cheers
Martin

gregbradley · #16 12-10-2010, 11:35 AM

Thanks Martin.

I can email you a luminance.

I also got another 2 hours or so last night under good conditions.

The scope is good. Flats are more important on this scope than on others for some reason. On brighter objects its not a problem but on some dimmer ones it is. Part of that is it will obviously perform best under very dark skies. My skies at home at quite dark to the west and poor to the east and resonable to the south. Certainly star sizes are well corrected over the field.

Greg.