A fun comparison II

[rogerg (Roger)]

Well, I gave the finger a shot on Friday night. Conditions were extremely poor: 50% cloud cover, high level thin stuff everywhere, bright moon, and a bit of a breeze now and then to shake the scope around. But I had to try!

My hat goes off to you Mike, you've achieved a great result in the image you orginally posted .. this is not a particularly large object!

Attached is my attempt.

It's 17 x 5 minutes, all using clear filter.

Results would have been much better on a night of even average conditions, but still, I expected I would get more on such a poor night.

Processing:

• Stacked in CCDSoft using average
• Enlarged using Genuine Fractals to 250% using medium texture, medium-heavy sharpenning, 5% film grain.
• Cropped
• Levels, curves.
• Cropped
• Levels, curves.
• Manual sharpenning with tool.
• Looking at it now I wish I hadn't sharpenned it so much, but I didn't save a copy half way through processing yesterday.

Thanks for the inspiration to get out and do some imaging on such a dodgy night, Mike, a great challenge

Roger

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Oh ya Roger for have'n a go mate, it's fun trying different things

Even though Eta was well on its way down in the southwestern sky when I did that shot last year the seeing was still quite reasonable but I have been wanting to try again this year if the seeing cooperates and go for it when it is crossing the meridian, I'm sure I could pull a bit more out then? There are other techniques that would improve the resolution too, like lots of really short subs and then only using the best ones ala planetary imaging and just what Steve Kinetic has been doing lately with his 12".

Mike

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

While I think my shots are pretty good for a small amateur scope, if you want to see a shot almost as good as Hubble with what is (just) still an amateur instrument, have a look at Johannes Schedlers site, scroll down to his Eta shot taken on 17 May 2008 under excellent seeing conditions in Namibia FWHM = 1" with a superb Philip Keller 20" cassegrain

Check out the lasrgest files, they are simply breathtaking

http://panther-observatory.com/

There are always better shots out there

Mike

[renormalised (Carl)]

Just had a look at the pics....I think now that Theo has the beast in his obs, with a bit of practice he'll be able to churn out pics like that. Or close to that quality, anyway.

[spearo (Frank)]

Mike,
I love this image
just awesome
http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/94211399
frank

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Originally Posted by spearo

Mike,
I love this image
just awesome
http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/94211399
frank

Thanks Franko, that's my longer FL RC FOV simulation

Mike