Angry star....

[Quark (Trevor)]

Lovely image of an incredible object Peter,

Love the subtleties of the colours and most delicate structure within this image. Is it my imagination or can I see a hint of the Homunculus under the vertical diffraction spike of Eta Carina?

Well done
Regards
Trevor

[Peter Ward]

Originally Posted by Quark

Love the subtleties of the colours and most delicate structure within this image. Is it my imagination or can I see a hint of the Homunculus under the vertical diffraction spike of Eta Carina?

Well done
Regards
Trevor

Thanks Trev!

You have a keen eye! ...there is indeed a very short RGB sub exposure layered in of the Homunculus....the brightness of which is proving difficult for yours truly to tame without it looking artificial.

(I suspect a 24bit CCD might be required to capture the full dynamic range of this delightful region)

[Peter Ward]

For those that like the technicolor look....a high saturation version here

http://www.atscope.com.au/BRO/gallery37c.html

[Jen]

very nice Peter

[AlexN]

Narrowfield does rule! I like the shot, would love to see it in higher resolution...

[Peter Ward]

Thanks Jen, Alex. The original was taken at 2x bin i.e. about 2000 pixels across (1x seemed is overkill for a FL of 5000+ mm) I'm afraid you'll have to be content with 70% res for now.

Judging by the number if views this image has received, I guess narrow field is popular

[AlexN]

Many people love looking at narrow field.. Not many attempt it... True enough, bin1x1 would have definitely been overkill at that focal length... resolution would have been awesome though!! Did you use AO? I would have thought it necessary at such a focal length..

[Bassnut (Fred)]

mmm, 5300mm FL, yummy, and very smick Peter, tight as. Slightly duochromic, but top guiding (natch, but wouldnt even try this without a PME), bin 2 is appropriate and works well. So that was F12?, what times barlow was that then?.

[Peter Ward]

Originally Posted by AlexN

...........True enough, bin1x1 would have definitely been overkill at that focal length... resolution would have been awesome though!! Did you use AO?

While I am an advocate for oversampling, 1x1 binning simply would have lowered the system gain with *no improvement in image resolution* at that focal length (there are books written about Nyquist sampling, so I won't dwell on this here).

But sure, had the seeing been great, a 1x1 bin would have paid dividends.

I did indeed use an AOL for the luminance data (...despite the naysayers...guiding at 10Hz is so cool...) but the RGB required 0.5 sec guiding so wasn't used for that part of the data.

Cheers
Peter

[jase (Jason)]

Was horrified to see such short integrated exposure time, but then realised the data was binned. I concur, probably gave you optimal sampling given environmental limitations. Lovely work Peter.

...mmmm, o v e r s a m p l e d d a t a ....<drool>
....mmmm d e c o n v o l u t i o n...mmmm

a match made in heaven...until you need to deal with blooms...eeeekkkkkk arrrrrgggggg.

[Peter Ward]

Originally Posted by Bassnut

mmm, 5300mm FL, yummy, ..... So that was F12?, what times barlow was that then?.

I tried two...the result posted was with an AP 2". My Baader FFC gave better edge results, but was hovering around the 7000mm mark....but on a good night, might prove to be awesome

[Peter Ward]

Originally Posted by jase

I concur.......... optimal sampling given environmental limitations. Lovely work Peter.

and a tip 'o the hat to you Jase

[pgc hunter]

I love it, very asthetic. Nice job capturing the rude finger

[atalas]

Excellent Peter!