Messier album complete for 27deg South - additional hooter image appended

[RobF (Rob)]

Make that 106 objects now...

Found out tonight I also managed to get 9 mins of M40 (Winnecke 4) double star asterism in Ursa Major in April from Leyburn - snatched through the trees with an elevation of about 5 degrees at the time. I assumed I'd pointed at the wrong spot back then, but realised later it's a "curiosity object", not a faint fuzzy.

There are actually 2 other very faint NGC galaxies in the frame too.

[glenc (Glen)]

Excellent shot Rob. The galaxies are NGC 4290 (m12.8) and NGC 4284 (L, m14.4).

[RobF (Rob)]

Thanks Glen
Probably just as well it wasn't a nice object that deserved plenty of exposure - was never going to happen at that declination

[RobF (Rob)]

I'm being a Messier Media Tart, but here's my last shred of April Leyburn data and a fresh attempt at the Owl nebula (taken at max elevation of about 7 degrees).

Previously the only shot in my collection was 2x90secs from Cambroon (Astroron's) from early 2009. The object was so faint I didn't even see it in those finder frames and moved on. It wasn't until later I "found it" at home when processing in a dark room

Anyway, this has been shamelessly tortured to the limit with only a single frame each of RGB, but even so I reckon I can see the little blighter in there hooting away.....

LRGB 9:3:3:3 (3x3 unbinned L, 1x3 binnedx2 R, G and B)
Cropped to about 50% of full field and rotated for maximum Harry Potter effect

[bmitchell82 (Brendan)]

hehehe for this kind of thing Rob you need to invest in Pinpoint and Maximdl. then even if you cant see it You know the little hooter is there because it matches the star patterns

[batema (Mark)]

Hi Rob,

That is fantastic. What an effort and you will have to head to the northern hemisphere to finish those few remaining.

Mark

[RobF (Rob)]

Agree totally Brendan - have forked out for the full Pinpoint already - such a great product, and having fun writing some .NET around it. Has really helped me figure out ways to get better pointing peversely (I expected it would just magically correct pointing difficulties).

I was peering through a deep red laptop filter too the night I first "lost" this one


Mark - wouldn't it be great to head to the Canary islands or US for a week of clear weather. Sigh...!