M51

Pierre · #1 02-06-2006, 03:17 AM

Hi folks,

a small contribution as m51.

Technical data:

Date: 29-4-2006
Location: Champ du feu (North East of France)- Alt: 1100 m
Temp: -6°c
Imager: Toucam Pro - 1/4" bw sensor - Capture by Desire.
Astrograph: Tak Mewlon180 f/6 (focal reducer)
Mount: em200Temma2
Pictures: 130x30s - no darks and no flats
Processing: Iris v5.10 (French processing powerful software : http://www.astrosurf.com/buil/us/iris/iris.htm)

Special note: RA error due to massive people around, this has been imaged during a public star party.Picture croping has been needed.

http://astrosurf.com/pierre/Ciel_profond/m51-masque.jpg

Edit: Year (2006) and temperature.

Varyonyx · #2 02-06-2006, 06:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pierre

Hi folks,

a small contribution as m51.

Technical data:

Date: 29-4-2004
Location: Champ du feu (North East of France)- Alt: 1100 m
Imager: Toucam Pro - 1/4" bw sensor - Capture by Desire.
Astrograph: Tak Mewlon180 f/6 (focal reducer)
Mount: em200Temma2
Pictures: 130x30s - no darks and no flats
Processing: Iris v5.10 (French processing powerful software : http://www.astrosurf.com/buil/us/iris/iris.htm)

Special note: RA error due to massive people around, this has been imaged during a public star party.Picture croping has been needed.

http://astrosurf.com/pierre/Ciel_profond/m51-masque.jpg

Hello Pierre,

Really good picture with nice resolution down to core of the Spiral.
In the future i will turn my interest to observing of variable Stars but
from time to time i will do a little bit Deepsky too.

wating for my first contribution to this board?. Here it is M51

Optics: 6" f12 BOMAK(Maksutov/Cassegrain with Reducer at f6)
CCD: Custom modified WATEC WAT-120N
Integration: 60x10.24sec
Calibration: Darkframe plus Flatfield
Notice: Telescope completely remote controlled via Internet

Look here
http://vsu.dyndns.org/m51gross.jpg

Kieken · #3 02-06-2006, 07:21 AM

Quelle photo magnifique, cet image va certainement servir comme example quand je vais photographer moimême.

Nice pic, gives me a nice example for when I'm going to take astropics. Say, where do you live in Frnace exactly? Perhaps we could hold a IIS starparty on the continent

.

h0ughy (David) · #4 02-06-2006, 07:33 AM

Gee Wizz all you foriegn guys, welcome and what an excellent image. Thanks, is that really pushing the toucam?

Varyonyx · #5 02-06-2006, 08:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by h0ughy

Gee Wizz all you foriegn guys, welcome and what an excellent image. Thanks, is that really pushing the toucam?

Hi houghy,

well if Pierre did the SC3 mod (which is not easy and requires a lot of knowledge in electronics) reaching so good picture quality is possible. After a SC3 (replacing the color-ccd with a bw-ccd with much higher sensitivity)mod the ToUCAM is far away being a simple Webcam

. This tuned camera can compete with dedicated Astro-Cameras especially when cooled with a peltier element

.

But dont forget the other components that a good picture needs: good equipment, good skies and a routined astrophotographer.

.And not to forget a very clever Postprocessing Software. I like "IRIS" very much, so my picture was processed with IRIS too

. Thanks to Christian for his outstandig work

By the way:
Do you know the WAT-120N CCD

?. This is a surveillance camera from WATEC Corporation with super high sensitive SONY-CCD and my absolutely favourite for imaging.
Currently i use the WATEC for more than 2 years and imaged hundreds of deep-sky objects with it.

Dennis · #6 02-06-2006, 08:37 AM

Hello, Pierre

Wow - what a superb image with so much detail in the spiral arms and you have very cleverly managed to avoid burning out the galactic core. Great job.

Cheers

Dennis

Pierre · #7 02-06-2006, 04:25 PM

Hello all,

thanks a lot, i am happy you enjoy this picture.

Varyonyx: your picture sounds not bad too

. One of my friends uses a Watec camera. Iris is a very useful software. My webcam is only sc1.5 modified as i did not replace the 1/4" sensor by a 1/3" but only a 1/4" bw sensor. As i have recently tried a real ccd imager such as the Audine, i should go into this one: cooled regulated sensor, sensitivity and also 16 bits sampling rate.

Kieken: i live in Haguenau. A european star party is already engaged twice a year ( http://astrosurf.com/astrocdf67/ ). More than one of your compatriots have come there

H0ughy: pushing the camera? Not yet, only 3900s cumulated exposure time for this picture

. Not enough to show all possible details.

Dennis: the core is not burned out while using an "opacity mask": create a gaussian (value 4) save it and you divide the picture with a coefficient. This is one of the possible tips with Iris Software.

Pierre.

Striker (Tony) · #8 02-06-2006, 04:59 PM

Great image Pierre.

130 x 30 seconds....thats a lot of exposures.

Pierre...is everyone in France named Pierre...I have a friend who comes from France and his name is Pierre.....lol

ving (David) · #9 02-06-2006, 05:01 PM

gawd ur silly tony!
nice pic

Pierre · #10 02-06-2006, 05:23 PM

Striker: Lots of exposure?? Erf not enough, we should have not 30s time but 90s for a better s/n ratio, the Tak mount enables it, without selfguiding.....Unfortunately, passing people have put their feet around the installation connections so i had to dim the exposure time, arf....

Pierre is a 2000 years old name. Lots of people have been named Pierre, Peter, Pedro, Petrus, Pietro etc....

Ving: i cannot understand (slang?) words

... But nevertheless i have understood the second part. Thank you!!!

mickoking · #11 02-06-2006, 05:34 PM

Great shot pierre

I would like to view M 51 soon but it will be a challenge as it doesnt rise very high above my horizon (15 degrees above the light polluted northern horizon).

Cheers

Mick

Pierre · #12 02-06-2006, 05:49 PM

Mick, i have simulated the culmination of M51 in Australia on Skycharts software: although you australian people are fortunate to observe deep space gems (Carina, Tucan and so on), some objects still resist

. That is why i posted this galaxy, to share unusual objects in your country...

Even in the nothern latitudes, M51 requires a good clear unpolluted sky to see obtain the large spiral arm curve and details on HII regions. The 460mm/4.4 dob of our club did even not revealed a dense spiral arm at this star party.

mickoking · #13 02-06-2006, 05:54 PM

Thanks for that

spearo (Frank) · #14 02-06-2006, 05:57 PM

Pierre,
felicitations!
C'est une tres belle photo de M51 avec beaucoup plus de detail que j'aurais cru possible avec la Toucam pro. C'est tres impressionant.

Je remarque qu'il faisait -6 ce qui peut avoir aide a reduire le "noise" en gardant le CCD bien froid.

C'a me fait penser a ma soiree d'astrophotographie il y a une semaine il faisait aussi froid a quatre heure et demi du matin malgre le fait que je suis en Australie (j'en ai meme mis une photo sur mon site web personel)

Belle photo, envoies-en d'autres bientot!

salut

frank

translation: Well done...keep 'em comin' (loosly translated/abridged version)
:]
frank

Pierre · #15 02-06-2006, 06:07 PM

Yes Frank, -6°c at 1100m alt. on the end of april, quite unusual

for that period (season: spring!!!). In fact, the weather has gone insane since approximately one month, clouds, wind and cold (average temp. are about 6 to 80°C under the norm) !!! We have rarely saw that in my country

I see that your post is translated? Is that yours? The text is clear and understandable even without accents and ponctuation

...

Edit: just forget the translation thing, being Canadian may help you uh??

ving (David) · #16 02-06-2006, 06:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pierre

Ving: i cannot understand (slang?) words

... But nevertheless i have understood the second part. Thank you!!!

lol, sorry. I was teasing tony (aka striker). as for the second part... vous êtes bienvenu. degré de solvabilité où le degré de solvabilité est dû.

i hope thats right

french text by: http://babelfish.altavista.com/tr

spearo (Frank) · #17 02-06-2006, 07:09 PM

HAHAHA
nope, no translation, and you're right Pierre, having grown up in Montreal Canada does mean that French is my mother tongue.
I just couldn't be bothered figuring out how to work the accents on the keyboard
good work on the image and keep 'em coming

cheers
frank

Pierre · #18 02-06-2006, 07:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spearo

HAHAHA
nope, no translation, and you're right Pierre, having grown up in Montreal Canada does mean that French is my mother tongue.
I just couldn't be bothered figuring out how to work the accents on the keyboard
good work on the image and keep 'em coming

cheers
frank

lol, my little finger told me.... I guess your keyboard is accent free?

spearo (Frank) · #19 03-06-2006, 12:24 PM

That's right,
there's always ways around it but i couldnt be bothered...I'd rather spend my time taking pictures!
:]
cheers
frank

Pierre · #20 03-06-2006, 08:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spearo

That's right,
...I'd rather spend my time taking pictures!
:]
cheers
frank

Sure!!! I understand what you mean