Amateur Images the Edge of Everything!

[Galaxygazer]

Originally Posted by Astroman

Congratulations on the record, a great achievement. Looking at the image on the link above (first post), there are numerous fainter looking "blobs" on it, are these known galaxies or clumps of background noise? One noticable was one just to the left of the Quasar, shows a slight condensation of either noise or something else. If it is something else, could it be possible that these are even further than the observed Quasar?

Good point! When I superimposed all the catalogs I could find in Aladin, I was really surprised. There are numerous unidentified objects both brighter and fainter. Would it be worthwhile releasing this image (fits format) for educational and scientific curiosity and to see what comes back? Would that be of interest?

[renormalised (Carl)]

Originally Posted by Galaxygazer

Good point! When I superimposed all the catalogs I could find in Aladin, I was really surprised. There are numerous unidentified objects both brighter and fainter. Would it be worthwhile releasing this image (fits format) for educational and scientific curiosity and to see what comes back? Would that be of interest?

Yes, then others could go over it and let you know if you've found anything dimmer and further away

[Galaxygazer]

Originally Posted by Ken Crawford

.


Here is the link to the 5 hours detection image that was tested. This is the quasar that you just surpassed.

http://www.imagingdeepsky.com/CFHQS_J1641.html


Thanks again and a heartly congrats for such fine work.

Kindest Regards,

That is an interesting point – 5 hours! Seems really short.



So after how many hours does this quasar become visible that is even more distant?


So in my case I have a camera with higher QE in the far red. At the same time the redshift of the quasar is higher, only visible from about 890nm upwards


http://www.astronomy.ohio-state.edu/~martini/osmos/j1148_osmos.jpg


Just combining 24 images (2 hours) surprisingly reveals both the Quasar and just a faint indication of the 26.9 (g) galaxy.
Here are screen shots taken from Aladin


First the blank view
http://wiki.global-rent-a-scope.com/GetFile.aspx?File=Share%20an%20Imag e\No%20Label.jpg


Now two objects of importance (compare to above)


http://wiki.global-rent-a-scope.com/GetFile.aspx?File=Share%20an%20Imag e\2%20Object%20label.jpg


Here an idea of the NED database overlay


http://nedwww.ipac.caltech.edu/


http://wiki.global-rent-a-scope.com/GetFile.aspx?File=Share%20an%20Imag e\Full%20label.jpg


Notes:
The noise level in the above images is relatively high. I just took 24 images at random. These may have been “lucky picks” and thus not representative. There may be errors although the quasar is clearly visible, so are most objects from NED.



It seems prudent to release images and calibration files for review; I welcome open discussions and especially improvements in data mining.


Here the telescope data:
TELESCOP = 'ACP->GRAS-017 CDK 17 IR' / Telescope name INSTRUME = 'FLI-New ' / Detector instrument name
DATE-OBS = '2011-02-03T23:37:06' / [ISO 8601] UTC date/time of exposure start EXPOSURE = 3.00000000000E+002 / [sec] Duration of exposure
SET-TEMP = -45.000000000000000 /CCD temperature setpoint in C
XPIXSZ = 13.000000000000002 /Pixel Width in microns (after binning) YPIXSZ = 13.000000000000002 /Pixel Height in microns (after binning)
XBINNING = 1 / Binning level along the X-axis YBINNING = 1 / Binning level along the Y-axis
FILTER = 'Clear ' / Filter name
CSTRETCH = 'Medium ' / Initial display stretch mode
CBLACK = 3063 /Initial display black level in ADUs CWHITE = 5288 /Initial display white level in ADUs
PEDESTAL = -100 /Correction to add for zero-based ADU
SWOWNER = 'Christian Sasse'
AIRMASS = 1.26807635376E+000 / Airmass (multiple of zenithal airmass)
OBSERVAT = 'G17 - Sasse Deep Red Telescope' / Observatory name
RA = '11 48 17.00' / [hms J2000] Target right ascension DEC = '+52 51 50.0' / [dms +N J2000] Target declination
SHISTORY Bias Subtraction (Bias 1, 1056 x 1027, Bin1 x 1, Temp -45C,
HISTORY Dark-Bias(Bias 1,1056 x 1027,Bin1 x 1,Temp -45C,Exp Time 0ms) HISTORY Flat Field (Flat Clear 1, Clear, 1056 x 1027, Bin1 x 1, Temp -45C,
SNAPSHOT = 24 /Number of images combined

[Galaxygazer]

Originally Posted by renormalised

Yes, then others could go over it and let you know if you've found anything dimmer and further away

OK - What is best - Just the deep image or basically all images so that independent reviews are possible? I am open!

[Galaxygazer]

The combined image can be downloaded at http://tinyurl.com/6la4ajz
It consists of 199 stacked images of 300s, see Fits header for details. The image is astrometrically calibrated for use with relevant software.

Enjoy! Looking forward to feedback.

[bkm2304 (Richard Brown)]

Hi Christian,

Just tried to open the file in CCDOPS but it says it's not recognisable as a data file that can be read.

Any suggestions?

Richard.

[Galaxygazer]

Originally Posted by bkm2304

Just tried to open the file in CCDOPS but it says it's not recognisable as a data file that can be read.

Any suggestions?

Richard.

I do not know about CCDOPS. It should open in MaximDl or CCDStack, did you try that?

[bkm2304 (Richard Brown)]

Originally Posted by Galaxygazer

I do not know about CCDOPS. It should open in MaximDl or CCDStack, did you try that?

D'Oh! Opened first time! Thanks!

Richard

[Galaxygazer]

If you have time and energy, this topic was discussed at AstronomyFM Coronas and Quasars, including astronomer Carolin Liefke http://tinyurl.com/3b3zmj2