Just wonderful Mike. Loved it all, but spent ages looking at the colours and detail around NGC 6164. Bring on the future if you can do this with 5min subs I say. Not much fun getting enough 30min subs for each filter to dither out the noise but that's what people have always had to do in the past to get top class work I guess.
Yes, getting this with just 5min subs and all in one moon lit night from the city is pretty cool and exactly the reason I grabbed this scope in the first place , the field of view is great and provides so many options. I have flattened the field by increasing the spacing slightly with some plastic gaskets (Orion will be providing a new adapter - they are great to deal with!)
It was a dew ladden night too but the inbuilt OTA heating left the primary and secondary mirrors and corrector front element all bone dry in the morning - phew.
The NJP mount was again unperturbed by the load too, returning sub arc sec autoguiding without a problem.
Dave: I have a big field but without an observatory... I think Greg, with his at least 4 scopes, two cameras and two observatories, is in no danger of having to pass over the imaging machine baton any time soon
Rob: I don't dither, never have...?
Mike
Last edited by strongmanmike; 22-05-2011 at 10:49 PM.
A terrific image Mike. I like it. I don't think I have ever seen NGC6188 look so transparent like that. My favourite part of this area is the twisty gas/dust section and it really stands out in your image. Also that shock wave around the small flower looking neb is well defined.
Very nice. All the stars look perfectly round so it looks like your understanding of your new scope has increased. It can take a while to understand the requirements of different gear.
Cheers Greg, I am just so happy that everyone likes it ...I was really happy with how it was coming together but then I thought my jaggered raw meat core Eta Carina looked ok
Yes the nuaunces of a new system take some time to refine, still some tweaking to do but I think I'll get there
Looks like you will be able to do even more with this scope Mike. The fact you captured the faint bubble so well is the evidence. I can't wait to see how dim dust comes up with deep RGB's. I would guess that even the black bits will come up dust coloured.
Here is an animated gif with your image and one of my colour images at 300mm and f/3.6. 4MB
Below is your image on mine. My image is 7X4.6 degrees. The AG12 also looks very rectilinear to me. Quite a feat for a 12" fast reflector and corrector.
Congratulations Mike, that's a superb image. The framing, colours, depth and sharpness is all great. I was not familiar with this nebula, but I can certainly see the dragons and the bubble in the corner just looks amazing.
I noticed the halos are almost gone too, did you find out the reason or did you do some processing on them?
Congrats on IOTW. Well deserved! I have a template to go by for mine now. I'm starting to shoot the Oiii tonight and this week-end by the look of it (hopefully). I hope to get some of those three other shock fronts on the wolf-rayet star.
PS: Isn't your picture mirrored?... or I need another coffee?..
Ahh, the power of Newtonian optics. Bucket loads of resolution, Bucket loads of light with a field to boot an aerial ping pong ball in.
Great job Mike I now want to see if my little baby 10" can pick up the wolf ryat star and its shock wave! my FOV and FL should capture the area quite well. All i have to do is wait for these clouds to nick off! Cool nights, No wind. 100% cloud
1 for the wide field mirrored whoos's
Last edited by h0ughy; 23-05-2011 at 01:19 PM.
Reason: profanity bypass
You have done a fine job on this Mike, the colours are nicely done, obviously your investment has paid off, I await in anticipation one of your marathon efforts.
Re quote above, I should really have said "smooth out the noise", but interesting you don't dither at all. I thought it was a rather nice concept for handling dirty sensors or dodgey pixels, albeit at requirement for extra settling time. Not as necessary with top notch gear though I guess.
Amazing image, Mike! It took me some time to get used to the colour palette but I think it works very well with the "dragon" theme and would look brilliant in a large print on canvas.
Being ignorant I can't comment on technical aspects of narrowband imaging and processing but I like this image a lot.
The shockwave bubble is something you don't see every day.
won't reply to everyone (I'm lazy) but I did read'em all.
Rolf - The Halos are still there, depending on the Brevil blending the halos vary in intensity and yes I processed them down but not out (no matter what I do I don't like the look of the completely de-processed star halos)
Interesting animation Bert but I am not quite sure of the exact reason, are you just showing where it is in the larger field..?
Marc - there's no up or down in space
Brendo - go for it, it's there for the bagging
Marcus - I sense some trepidation in your voice
Alex - off you knees mate, I am still on mine ..when this image wins me a ride..?...on Richard Bransons space ship THEN you can get on your knees fella
Thanks all for the nice comments, especially frojm those that found it hard to be positive about a couple of flying lizzards in vomit narrowband
, the field of view is great and provides so many options. I have flattened the field by increasing the spacing slightly with some plastic gaskets (Orion will be providing a new adapter - they are great to deal with!) 
