That is one huge galaxy - not seen it before, so thanks.
Cheers Ray, my pleasure, I am sure some others will image it now
Quote:
Originally Posted by DJT
What a great way to christen the observatory. It's a really cool galaxy.
Well Dave, I did do a first light image a couple of weeks ago but it was just a test to make sure everything was working. This time I wanted to do something new and deep for the "real" first light to demonstrate why I spent so much money, effort and time putting this installation together
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rod771
What a great looking galaxy, nice work Mike!
I really like the Orion nightscape too, seeing a vista like that is enough to make us folk from the burbs a little envious. Just lovely!
Cheers Rod, just being out under the stars is a great feeling, something going fully remote deprives you of, may as well just order and buy your fish from the fish shop ...err?..wouldn't mind my own fish shop too of course
Superb, beautiful image, with excellent balance between the detail in the bright core and the faint and delicate outer spiral arms. Lovely work.
Best,
Mike
Cheers Mike
Even though it is a huge galaxy, at 75 Million light years the central bright core is only 2' in size (say compared to the 11 Million ltyrs and 26' size of nearby NGC 253) so getting detail in that area is a challenge and is completely at the mercy of the seeing...in the end we have to make the most of what we have
Outstanding Mike, if someone would have told me it was done with a 20" class telescope I would have believed him!
Congratulation for your fully operative new observatory, a hard job to complete it but you start collecting the fruits
Ciao
Marco
PS: do you see what mega data can produce also for you ?
Thanks Marco
Yes the new observatory is great. Today I'm taking out the brand new 12" F5 GOTO Dob and making a flat spot for it to sit on, this will be my visual instrument to bide my time with while the imaging scope chugs away
Yes well not sure I truly have the patience for regular 20+ hr images (I get bored )....buuut ya never know, besides 20hrs means completely different things for different size and speed scopes and cameras anyway. While more exposure is generally always a good goal, simply plucking arbitrary total exposure figures out of the air as some sort of imaginary mark of seriousness just makes me laugh...in the end we could write what ever details we wanted in our image credits, no one would be the wiser
He he, yeah that's a 5m FL 16" in Namibia (edit 24") there's another sharp version taken with a 16" RC scope at Cerre Tololo (seeing is king!) but Hey, I was happy enough with the end result considering the very variable (and windy) conditions over the four nights (man does a dome help in the wind, struth )
Hi Mike,
it's hard to compete with long focal length & large mirrors but
you've done remarkably well.
So much detail in those whispy arms.
I've been looking up info on NGC 289, ESO/Uppsala has it at 11.0 x 9.0 arc minutes.
Certainly a big beasty!
Cheers,
Justin.
Cheers Justin, something different at least huh?
Quote:
Originally Posted by alpal
Hi Mike,
it's hard to compete with long focal length & large mirrors but
you've done remarkably well.
cheers
Allan
Well, when I disrespect the light...there ain't much in it Al except I got the HII regions...and I used no decon on this one either, so I don't have details simply turned into uniform pin points
24" 4800m FL in Namibia vs 12" 1120m FL at Wallaroo ..that bright core is only about 2' across too remember.
Mike
Last edited by strongmanmike; 08-10-2014 at 12:24 AM.
Well, when I disrespect the light...there ain't much in it Al except I got the HII regions...and I used no decon on this one either, so I don't have details simply turned into uniform pin points
24" 4800m FL in Namibia vs 12" 1120m FL at Wallaroo ..that bright core is only about 2' across too remember.
Hi Mike,
Now that's looking better than the one from Namibia.
What's going on?
Hi Mike,
Now that's looking better than the one from Namibia.
What's going on?
cheers
Allan
Mate, in the end seeing is everything, I note the boys in Nambia say there it was not good seeing (2.2") which is probably about what my average was for the project too, hence the similarity...put that 24" on a mountain in Chile and maaaate ...of course my lill'ol AG12 would perform better then too I guess
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ross G
An amazing galaxy photo Mike.
A new one to me.
So sharp and detailed.
Great colours.
Impressive comparison with the Namibia photo.
I like your nightscape photos. Your location looks great..horizon to horizon views!
Good luck.
Ross.
On ya Rossco, thanks for the positive words mate
Yes the location of the new observatory is pretty ok
. 
Just lovely! 
(I get bored 
)
