Lagoon hi res, exceptional seeing

[kinetic (Steve)]

Seeing was pretty awesome tonight......
All charts showed it was very promising.
Live preview after midnight was the best I have seen in
years.
Steady half flux ratio of between 1.45-1.70 !!!!!!
The bottom line being steady. I have never seen it that steady.

I got to work gathering a set of the Lagoon.
Cooling was difficult with the dew point at 7c along with ambient at 7c...that meant 100% humidity, which of course meant fog.
I now have fog well set in at nearly 2am.

This set ticks nearly all the boxes for me for the usual niggles I never
seem to get quite right.

Seeing...tick
Focus.....tick
tracking....homemade worm...big tick
No cloud...tick
No wind....apart from man made...tick
cooled CCD ...tick
dew kept at bay...tick

I hereby submit this result for IOTW! consideration

Steve

[alpal]

Hi Steve,
Nice & sharp in the center.
What are you using for coma correction?

cheers
Allan

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

you were lovin it huh?

Yeh, pretty good mate, Marc A's gunna love this

Shame you couldn't get some colour, next time huh? Seeing is no issue for colour either so you can grab it anytime...can you get colour..?

Mike

[multiweb (Marc)]

Wow! This is sooo cool. I got a shot that close up but not near the amount and sharpness of details you've got. Kudos to you.

[DavidU (Dave)]

Awesome Stevo.

[irwjager (Ivo)]

Congrats on having such a magic night where it just all comes together -
the results speak for themselves!

[RobF (Rob)]

Stunning detail. Well done.
What software is that you're using to measure seeing BTW?

[batema (Mark)]

Given that I have just processed my Lagoon Lum from last night and I just saw your image I am amazed at the detail you have got. An amazing looking photo. Well done.

Mark

[kinetic (Steve)]

Thanks all,
FWIW, I think you should all appeal to Mike S to reinstate the IOTW!!!
Otherwise the site starts to stagnate and not inspire anyone to image anymore.
last IOTW 2nd week of Feb...cmon!
Premier Southern Hemisphere Astronomy website????
Now off my soapbox, btw he will NEVER make one of my images IOTW

Originally Posted by alpal

Hi Steve,
Nice & sharp in the center.
What are you using for coma correction?

cheers
Allan

Thanks Allan,
I don't use a coma corrector. The DSI II is bolted straight on at Newt focus but behind the homemade filter wheel. There may be some coma in all of my DSI / 12" Newt stuff but I think focus and seeing and tracking are a bigger factor before the coma exhibits any effect. Another contributor to star size and shape at this FL has been stepper motor vibration.
I have dampened that out to almost nil now. This usually appears as elongated stars 7 o'clock to 1 o'clock.

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

Shame you couldn't get some colour, next time huh? Seeing is no issue for colour either so you can grab it anytime...can you get colour..?

Mike

Yes Mike I can get colour, but only through a cheap Meade RGB set I have loaded in the FW.
I don't have the hang of LRGB stuff yet. Gave it a go a few years back, even on Lagoon, but with mixed results.

Originally Posted by multiweb

Wow! This is sooo cool. I got a shot that close up but not near the amount and sharpness of details you've got. Kudos to you.

Thanks Marc, your WF Ha and narrow field Ha stuff lately has really
been inspiring .

Originally Posted by DavidU

Awesome Stevo.

Thanks David,
Michael's going well so far eh

Originally Posted by irwjager

Congrats on having such a magic night where it just all comes together -
the results speak for themselves!

Thank you Ivo,
I feel as happy and smug as Hannibal J Smith right now.
I love it when a plan comes together

Originally Posted by RobF

Stunning detail. Well done.
What software is that you're using to measure seeing BTW?

Rob, Nebulosity has a live preview with a HFR meter.
Depending on integration times in preview , it can be better for focusing
than a Bahtinov mask (sp?)

Originally Posted by batema

Given that I have just processed my Lagoon Lum from last night and I just saw your image I am amazed at the detail you have got. An amazing looking photo. Well done.

Mark

Thanks so much Mark.

[gregbradley]

Great work.

When the seeing is exceptional it does make imaging special.

Greg.

[naskies (Dave)]

Well done! I agree, it'd be great to see this in colour.

[peter_4059 (Peter)]

Great stuff Steve. It's great to see the DSI II producing these images. I haven't imaged with mine for a while but will never part with it.

[kinetic (Steve)]

Thanks again guys,
It is a pretty good set, this is just a prelim processing too, done
while frozen solid at 1:45am in the dome.
I haven't even cropped out some 2nd rate frames or put it through the
CCDStack deconvolve routine yet.

Edit: Oh what could have been a ripper of M16
Here are the only useable frames of a set of m16 after 2am. Fog set in around 2am.

Steve

[kinetic (Steve)]

Here is a more serious go at the set, this time a positive constraint
deconvolve of 120 iterations applied to the raw stack.
No downsize applied after the curves and sharpen, so this is the
full(albeit upsampled 2x ) image.
You can go swimming in this lagoon.
Not bad for a humble DSI II and a Chinese mirror eh?

IOTW?

Steve

[naskies (Dave)]

Originally Posted by kinetic

Here is a more serious go at the set, this time a positive constraint
deconvolve of 120 iterations applied to the raw stack.
No downsize applied after the curves and sharpen, so this is the
full(albeit upsampled 2x ) image.

Hmmm... in this version, your bright stars are actually larger and appear very clipped?

IOTW?

I hear that IOTWs tend to be in colour... hint hint

[kinetic (Steve)]

Originally Posted by naskies

Hmmm... in this version, your bright stars are actually larger and appear very clipped?



I hear that IOTWs tend to be in colour... hint hint

Hmmm...I haven't compared a 1x old to 1x new, you might be right Dave.
The curves/ levels may have clipped something, it could be the sharpening
that slightly ringed the smaller stars..I will have a look.

Colour?....what if I make the titles colour, will that help?

[White Rabbit]

The fact that you took this with a DSI II is even more impressive, I've never been able to get anything half way decent out of mine.

Well done.

[allan gould]

Totally awesome Steve. One question, what program did you use to do the positive constraint deconvolve?
Allan

[kinetic (Steve)]

Allan, the program is CCDStack.

I do a 120 iteration Pos constraint deconvolve as per one of
Ken Crawford's tutorials.

This works well for nights of above average seeing at this F.L.
Sometimes with the upsample, the set can even handle a few
iterations of sharpening.

hope this helps.

Steve

[Ross G]

Great looking closeup photo Steve.

Sharp and detailed.

Ross.