Hamburger 2017 - Now 31 hours total exposure

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

It only looks soft when compared to ridiculously way over sharpened very harsh versions viewed at small size

I like it just the way it is guys, a very good, pleasing to view and overall most excellent Centaurus A, very well done

Mike

[Placidus (Mike and Trish)]

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

It only looks soft when compared to ridiculously way over sharpened very harsh versions viewed at small size

I like it just the way it is guys, a very good, pleasing to view and overall most excellent Centaurus A, very well done

Mike

Thanks Mike, we are greatly encouraged.

As mentioned, up to 16 hours of L now, but really didn't change anything much. Tonight we should get another 2.5 hours per channel of RGB, and that should help control the colour noise.

[multiweb (Marc)]

That looks great Mike. Top shot!

[Placidus (Mike and Trish)]

Originally Posted by multiweb

That looks great Mike. Top shot!

Thanks Marc. That's kind.

[Retrograde (Pete)]

Beautiful work Mike and Trish. That relativistic jet really pops for something so faint.

[Placidus (Mike and Trish)]

Originally Posted by Retrograde

Beautiful work Mike and Trish. That relativistic jet really pops for something so faint.

Thanks, Pete. We're currently doing it in H-alpha. Ridiculously faint, but much clearer, if that makes sense. Seven hours so far. Hopefully more tonight.

[Placidus (Mike and Trish)]

NEW 2 June 2017

We've now doubled the exposure. 16 hours of Lum, and 5 hours per channel of RGB, for a total of 31 hours observing time. New full size image here. Of course doubling the exposure produces only incremental rather than game-changing improvements, we think it is better.

The background is now much less gritty. We've processed it to bring out the very faintest details in the faint lobe toward ten o'clock or so, at the expense of overall punch.

In the outermost extensions of the relativistic jet, you can see a wide and diffuse super-faint red jet with much brighter and sharper, but still faint discrete blue blobs and arcs.

Although the absolute colours are somewhat arbitrary, we can see that the outer halo is relatively pink, indicating older cooler stars, and the inner core relatively blue, indicating hot young stars. We've not done anything naughty or selective to produce that differential effect.

We've been very careful to produce as much contrast as we can in the meat pattie without burning anything to black. There is now more dark detail in the very darkest dust lanes in the meat pattie.

The distant background galaxies are a little clear and more definite now.

In a separate exercise, we've shot 7 hours of H-alpha. This has proven so ridiculously faint that, sadly, it has not been possible to combine it with this LRGB image, and we will publish it separately. However, it confirms all the features in the outer jet that we've described here: a broad fat H-alpha stripe with tiny, discrete sharper streaks and dots and arcs that here show up as blue.

Best,
M & T

[Peter Ward]

I think you have managed to achieve an image that was described by A. Powers, in 1997 I believe...

YEAH BABY!!

or words to that effect.

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Heck! At first look I thought it was the ESO shot taken with the 2.2m

Mike

[topheart]

Deep...real deep!
I love the characterisation of the faint jets.
Congratulations.
Cheers,
Tim

[Placidus (Mike and Trish)]

Originally Posted by Peter Ward

I think you have managed to achieve an image that was described by A. Powers, in 1997 I believe...

YEAH BABY!!

or words to that effect.

Thanks Peter. Glad to be in such delicate and discerning company!

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

Heck! At first look I thought it was the ESO shot taken with the 2.2m

Mike

Oh, whimper, whimper! We shall dream of a high mountain and a 2.2 metre scope tonight. A shot of spiced rum will help.

Originally Posted by topheart

Deep...real deep!
I love the characterisation of the faint jets.
Congratulations.
Cheers,
Tim

Thanks, Tim!

[Andy01 (Andy)]

Wow! Awesome- I prefer your star colours to the ESO one too, mind you the ESO stars are by comparison tiny pinpricks, & both
are wonderful images
There's some amazing talented folks in this forum, it's a pleasure to be able to view such beautiful work created right here in Oz.

[Atmos (Colin)]

Excellent shot MnT, I love the red ladder up on the top left of the image! Really deep Hamburger you have there

[marc4darkskies (Marcus)]

Whoa! The extra data made the difference! Exquisite!
The view at full res is wonderful! Great work M&T!

[Placidus (Mike and Trish)]

Originally Posted by Andy01

Wow! Awesome- I prefer your star colours to the ESO one too, mind you the ESO stars are by comparison tiny pinpricks, & both
are wonderful images
There's some amazing talented folks in this forum, it's a pleasure to be able to view such beautiful work created right here in Oz.

Thanks, Andy. Our scope, a bit ordinary at the brightest stuff, seems good at faint detail, but that ESO shot makes one weep.

Originally Posted by Atmos

Excellent shot MnT, I love the red ladder up on the top left of the image! Really deep Hamburger you have there

Cheers, Colin. We'd like to see even more clearly into the upper part of the jet, because of its astrophysical significance: a seriously extroverted neigbour. We suspect we've gone as far as we can in visible light.

We've now got 13 hours of H-alpha. The ESO shot uses both H-alpha and OIII filters, answering a bit of a suspicion that we throw OIII into the mix.

Originally Posted by marc4darkskies

Whoa! The extra data made the difference! Exquisite!
The view at full res is wonderful! Great work M&T!

Thanks muchly, Marcus. Sounds like it's ok for us to put on the lens cap and have a cuppa.

[Placidus (Mike and Trish)]

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

Heck! At first look I thought it was the ESO shot taken with the 2.2m

Mike

Thanks so much for drawing our attention to the ESO visual/Ha/OIII shot, Mike. We were aware of some other not-so-informative ESO images, but not this one. It has inspired us to try some OIII once the moon goes away.

[multiweb (Marc)]

The extra data made those jets really popup. Gotta be stoked with that shot.

[Placidus (Mike and Trish)]

Originally Posted by multiweb

The extra data made those jets really popup. Gotta be stoked with that shot.

Thanks muchly, Marc.

Teasing a bit, we're following in Slawomir's footsteps and shooting the jet in H-alpha. We're now onto our third consecutive night. For us, the NE end of the jet is off the original image, and much of the already faint jet is vignetted, so we're doing a bit of a mosaic. Tonight (aiming for the extreme NE end of the jet) may be a washout because of moon, but fingers are crossed as seeing is excellent. The detail so far is looking really pleasing.

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Originally Posted by Placidus

Tonight... as seeing is excellent. The detail so far is looking really pleasing.

Dont ya love it when this happens?!

Mike

[gregbradley]

A great image. It conveys the size of the huge elliptical.

Greg