Hi Paul,
I can say that there were people who seriously doubted that you could get
pictures of that quality with a system costing 1/5th of the price of
the usual premium optics producers but you have proven them all wrong.
Well done.
( I am trying to put a 10" f4 carbon fiber Newt. together to get great results
so I think along the same lines as you.)
What an honour to get on to a 60 symbols video -
you're on a roll.
cheers
Allan
I am sure there were plenty of people saying that. I know of two guys here that were quite open about thinking this. Who can blame them really? GSO, the new player on the block with a reputation of people needing to tinker a bit to get the scopes producing images. Not to mention going through development from a tube to a truss. Those of us who helped with feed back and ideas knew the optics were good, it was just the housing that needed to be stable. It's been a long haul, but things are looking good now.
Yes the 60 symbols videos were fun to do. I did those in 2011 I think after being Runner up in the Solar System imaging section of the ROG competition. It was pretty cool to be able to share my passion.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter Ward
So..let's think about this a bit more critically....and not to take away anything from Paul's fine image...Paramounts/STXL's etc. are cheap now?
As I've been howled/down before for saying so, the best optics on the planet will look very ordinary on a bowl of jelly.
I am with you 100% here Peter. STXL issues aside and some issues with the Paramount MX; essentially you need to have a stable system to produce good results. Without a good mount/support you cannot get anything good out of the best optics/cameras.
Whenever I get asked about where to start I always say but a good mount and make it stable with a good pier and pier support. From there anything is possible.
Quote:
Originally Posted by theodog
Isn't this discussion better suited to the "Equipment" section.
This thread is about the image.
Well done Paul, very tidy.
Don't worry Jeff, I reckon it is pertinent to how I got the image. Thanks all the same.
That's a very nice and smooth Sombrero indeed Paul. Apart from the fine detail I particularly like the colours
One I should get around to too, I've only ever done a couple of hours on it and then managed to pick out over 130 globulars, so can only imagine what must be lurking in your image already!
That is great Paul, I was just looking at the full image and seeing all the little Galaxys surrounding it in deep field in particular to the left and just to the lower right, there are hundreds of them.
A very very nice image.
Thanks for showing it.
That new data has really made a heap of difference-and that in itself os very educational- its a really beautiful image now. Are you intending on going deeper still? Well done again
Most impressive how far that faint diffuse light seems to stretch outwards from the bright outline of this galaxy.
One of the puzzles in astronomy is why the halo of M104 should be relatively bright. In general, halos of spiral galaxies are very difficult to detect; at around 28-30 V magnitudes per square arcsecond.
In my view, the answer to this question is that M104 is actually an S0 galaxy rather than a spiral galaxy; the dust lane would be hardly noticeable if this galaxy were viewed face on!
Cheers,
Robert
I hasten to add, in an edit, that a lot of the " galaxy halo" detections reported in the IIS astro-imaging pages are probably not actually picking up the halo of a spiral galaxy.....mostly, the images are picking up a faint outer component of the planar disk structure, rather than the outer spheroidal halo component.
The halo work by professional astronomers is really taking off exponentially, in the last few years; this is one of many specialized areas within astronomy that have benefitted from an unprecedented number of PhD students, postdocs, and early career researchers in astronomy;
each sub-field within extragalactic astronomy is now developing so fast that the poor Mad Galaxy Man finds it harder and harder to keep up!
Last edited by madbadgalaxyman; 23-04-2015 at 12:15 AM.
Yep - nicely done Paul. One of the best sombreros I've seen in recent years.
Steve
Thanks Steve, that is high praise, but much appreciated.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SkyViking
That's a very nice and smooth Sombrero indeed Paul. Apart from the fine detail I particularly like the colours
One I should get around to too, I've only ever done a couple of hours on it and then managed to pick out over 130 globulars, so can only imagine what must be lurking in your image already!
Thanks Rolf for your compliments. Hmm, I might need to investigate and do an overlay. Any suggestions for which programme to use. The SkyX does not seem to do that.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nico13
That is great Paul, I was just looking at the full image and seeing all the little Galaxys surrounding it in deep field in particular to the left and just to the lower right, there are hundreds of them.
A very very nice image.
Thanks for showing it.
Thanks Ken. Yes there are lots of small galaxies in the field. Though not as many as in the current field of another project that I am undertaking.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Andy01
That new data has really made a heap of difference-and that in itself os very educational- its a really beautiful image now. Are you intending on going deeper still? Well done again
No plans at this stage to go deeper. Though with an observatory I can always add more next year if I wanted.
Quote:
Originally Posted by madbadgalaxyman
Paul,
Most impressive how far that faint diffuse light seems to stretch outwards from the bright outline of this galaxy.
One of the puzzles in astronomy is why the halo of M104 should be relatively bright. In general, halos of spiral galaxies are very difficult to detect; at around 28-30 V magnitudes per square arcsecond.
In my view, the answer to this question is that M104 is actually an S0 galaxy rather than a spiral galaxy; the dust lane would be hardly noticeable if this galaxy were viewed face on!
Cheers,
Robert
I hasten to add, in an edit, that a lot of the " galaxy halo" detections reported in the IIS astro-imaging pages are probably not actually picking up the halo of a spiral galaxy.....mostly, the images are picking up a faint outer component of the planar disk structure, rather than the outer spheroidal halo component.
The halo work by professional astronomers is really taking off exponentially, in the last few years; this is one of many specialized areas within astronomy that have benefitted from an unprecedented number of PhD students, postdocs, and early career researchers in astronomy;
each sub-field within extragalactic astronomy is now developing so fast that the poor Mad Galaxy Man finds it harder and harder to keep up!
Thanks Robert for your comments. Quite interesting. I will go and take a look at that thread. It might help with my processing of halos in future.
Talking to several high profile imagers at the AAIC a couple of years ago, it was interesting to hear the thoughts about imaging halos and tidal streams.
Thanks Rolf for your compliments. Hmm, I might need to investigate and do an overlay. Any suggestions for which programme to use. The SkyX does not seem to do that.
Hi Paul,
This peaked my interest since I've thought of doing something like that with Aladin before. Playing a bit now...attached is what I came up with using a generic Simbad data query (the Simbad button near the menu bar) and 2 custom filters for globs. The image data itself is a stack of 9x20min luminance I took in 2013 with the CDK20 at ARO.
The custom filter definitions (which are new 'planes' in the Aladin software) are:
${V}<23 && $[src.class]="GlCl" {draw{V}}
and
${V}<23 && $[src.class]="GlCl" {draw red rhomboid}
I understand your reasons for cropping this, and its a great image as you have displayed it. But I really really liked the full frame composition that you sent to me.
This peaked my interest since I've thought of doing something like that with Aladin before. Playing a bit now...attached is what I came up with using a generic Simbad data query (the Simbad button near the menu bar) and 2 custom filters for globs. The image data itself is a stack of 9x20min luminance I took in 2013 with the CDK20 at ARO.
The custom filter definitions (which are new 'planes' in the Aladin software) are:
${V}<23 && $[src.class]="GlCl" {draw{V}}
and
${V}<23 && $[src.class]="GlCl" {draw red rhomboid}
BTW really well done on that image.
Best,
EB
Wow there appears to be a lot of globulars that I have captured. Not out of the ordinary I am sure but I had no idea that there were so many. It being a smaller galaxy than our own from what I have read; I expected not many would be present. Thanks for putting that up.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter.M
I understand your reasons for cropping this, and its a great image as you have displayed it. But I really really liked the full frame composition that you sent to me.
I totally understand; the full frame has so many back ground galaxies to see, but the portrait style and stars on the edge of the field bothers me. Pity there were not enough guide stars for landscape.
Wonderful image Paul! All the little galaxies around it pop out easily. The main image looks like one of the early Hubble images I remember seeing. Fantastic stuff.
