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ASTRO: a quickie M51 from the backyard last night



 
 
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  #1  
Old April 11th 08, 12:30 PM posted to alt.binaries.pictures.astro
Richard Crisp[_1_]
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Posts: 985
Default ASTRO: a quickie M51 from the backyard last night

what a difference in the forecasts from the NWS toward the end of this week
versus the beginning. Thurs was clear, but the seeing was a bit disturbed.

I went ahead and imaged anyway, queuing up about 3 hours of exposure and
went to bed

When I got up at 3am to image some summer nebulae, I found that I had 39 x 3
minutes good enough to process

so here is 3 minutes shy of 2 hours exposure, unfiltered, from the 18" cass,
FLI Dream Machine camera and the AP1200GTO mount.

http://www.narrowbandimaging.com/m51...camel_page.htm

even though I have imaged M51 many times, it seems that every time I do it I
find another reason to like this most interesting pair of galaxies.

I may even make a color image from it this time









Attached Images
File Type: jpg m51_mk1sn2_dm_geg_camel_39x3min_svga.jpg (42.5 KB, 92 views)
  #2  
Old April 12th 08, 01:58 AM posted to alt.binaries.pictures.astro
Doug W.
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Posts: 264
Default ASTRO: a quickie M51 from the backyard last night

That looks good!... I assume 3 min. subs to avoid saturation... talk about
light grasp....

--
Regards, Doug W.
www.photonsfate.com
"Richard Crisp" wrote in message
...
what a difference in the forecasts from the NWS toward the end of this
week versus the beginning. Thurs was clear, but the seeing was a bit
disturbed.

I went ahead and imaged anyway, queuing up about 3 hours of exposure and
went to bed

When I got up at 3am to image some summer nebulae, I found that I had 39 x
3 minutes good enough to process

so here is 3 minutes shy of 2 hours exposure, unfiltered, from the 18"
cass, FLI Dream Machine camera and the AP1200GTO mount.

http://www.narrowbandimaging.com/m51...camel_page.htm

even though I have imaged M51 many times, it seems that every time I do it
I find another reason to like this most interesting pair of galaxies.

I may even make a color image from it this time










  #3  
Old April 12th 08, 02:22 AM posted to alt.binaries.pictures.astro
Richard Crisp[_1_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 985
Default ASTRO: a quickie M51 from the backyard last night


"Doug W." wrote in message
...
That looks good!... I assume 3 min. subs to avoid saturation... talk about
light grasp....


yes, that's right Doug. The Dream Machine, even with 180,000 electron well
capacity, will saturate on the core of the smaller galaxy if I go past three
minutes unfiltered.

the camera has amazing QE and the 24 x 24 micron pixels really grab the
light

here's the photon transfer curve for the camera



--
Regards, Doug W.
www.photonsfate.com
"Richard Crisp" wrote in message
...
what a difference in the forecasts from the NWS toward the end of this
week versus the beginning. Thurs was clear, but the seeing was a bit
disturbed.

I went ahead and imaged anyway, queuing up about 3 hours of exposure and
went to bed

When I got up at 3am to image some summer nebulae, I found that I had 39
x
3 minutes good enough to process

so here is 3 minutes shy of 2 hours exposure, unfiltered, from the 18"
cass, FLI Dream Machine camera and the AP1200GTO mount.

http://www.narrowbandimaging.com/m51...camel_page.htm

even though I have imaged M51 many times, it seems that every time I do
it
I find another reason to like this most interesting pair of galaxies.

I may even make a color image from it this time














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Click image for larger version

Name:	ptc_final.jpg
Views:	123
Size:	152.5 KB
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  #4  
Old April 12th 08, 03:30 AM posted to alt.binaries.pictures.astro
Rick Johnson[_3_]
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Posts: 262
Default ASTRO: a quickie M51 from the backyard last night



Richard Crisp wrote:
"Doug W." wrote in message
...

That looks good!... I assume 3 min. subs to avoid saturation... talk about
light grasp....



yes, that's right Doug. The Dream Machine, even with 180,000 electron well
capacity, will saturate on the core of the smaller galaxy if I go past three
minutes unfiltered.

the camera has amazing QE and the 24 x 24 micron pixels really grab the
light


With my seeing, I almost always bin 2x2 to get 18 micron pixels. Cuts
exposure time by 4. If seeing is really bad I'll go to 3x3 but then
that bloom problem can screw up star images so they aren't round. So
can't use it when really bright stars are in the area. When I can get
into the observatory I'll adjust that pot some more. It helped but I
didn't go far enough last time I tried. Right now there's over a meter
of snow on the deck and stairs. I can't even open the screen door to
get to the deck. It's just too heavy. I had it open then high winds
put a 6' drift in front of the door. I won't be going out for some
time. That will take a while to melt.

Rick
--
Correct domain name is arvig and it is net not com. Prefix is correct.
Third character is a zero rather than a capital "Oh".

  #5  
Old April 12th 08, 03:45 AM posted to alt.binaries.pictures.astro
Richard Crisp[_1_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 985
Default ASTRO: a quickie M51 from the backyard last night


"Rick Johnson" wrote in message
...


Richard Crisp wrote:
"Doug W." wrote in message
...

That looks good!... I assume 3 min. subs to avoid saturation... talk
about
light grasp....



yes, that's right Doug. The Dream Machine, even with 180,000 electron
well capacity, will saturate on the core of the smaller galaxy if I go
past three minutes unfiltered.

the camera has amazing QE and the 24 x 24 micron pixels really grab the
light


With my seeing, I almost always bin 2x2 to get 18 micron pixels. Cuts
exposure time by 4. If seeing is really bad I'll go to 3x3 but then that
bloom problem can screw up star images so they aren't round. So can't use
it when really bright stars are in the area. When I can get into the
observatory I'll adjust that pot some more. It helped but I didn't go far
enough last time I tried. Right now there's over a meter of snow on the
deck and stairs. I can't even open the screen door to get to the deck.
It's just too heavy. I had it open then high winds put a 6' drift in
front of the door. I won't be going out for some time. That will take a
while to melt.



Yeah, when I heard the news about your big snowstorm a few days ago I
thought about you up there....

geez you've had a really tough winter this year!




  #6  
Old April 12th 08, 09:12 PM posted to alt.binaries.pictures.astro
Stefan Lilge
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Posts: 2,269
Default ASTRO: a quickie M51 from the backyard last night

Richard, I hope you get colour frames for this one, the luminance is
certainly good enough to justify the effort.

Stefan

"Richard Crisp" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
...
what a difference in the forecasts from the NWS toward the end of this
week versus the beginning. Thurs was clear, but the seeing was a bit
disturbed.

I went ahead and imaged anyway, queuing up about 3 hours of exposure and
went to bed

When I got up at 3am to image some summer nebulae, I found that I had 39 x
3 minutes good enough to process

so here is 3 minutes shy of 2 hours exposure, unfiltered, from the 18"
cass, FLI Dream Machine camera and the AP1200GTO mount.

http://www.narrowbandimaging.com/m51...camel_page.htm

even though I have imaged M51 many times, it seems that every time I do it
I find another reason to like this most interesting pair of galaxies.

I may even make a color image from it this time










  #7  
Old April 13th 08, 04:56 AM posted to alt.binaries.pictures.astro
George Normandin[_1_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,022
Default ASTRO: a quickie M51 from the backyard last night


"Richard Crisp" wrote
...

Great image Richard! M-51 is popular this year!

George N


  #8  
Old April 13th 08, 04:07 PM posted to alt.binaries.pictures.astro
Rick Johnson[_3_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 262
Default ASTRO: a quickie M51 from the backyard last night



Richard Crisp wrote:

"Rick Johnson" wrote in message
...


Richard Crisp wrote:

"Doug W." wrote in message
...


That looks good!... I assume 3 min. subs to avoid saturation... talk
about
light grasp....


yes, that's right Doug. The Dream Machine, even with 180,000 electron
well capacity, will saturate on the core of the smaller galaxy if I go
past three minutes unfiltered.

the camera has amazing QE and the 24 x 24 micron pixels really grab the
light


With my seeing, I almost always bin 2x2 to get 18 micron pixels. Cuts
exposure time by 4. If seeing is really bad I'll go to 3x3 but then that
bloom problem can screw up star images so they aren't round. So can't use
it when really bright stars are in the area. When I can get into the
observatory I'll adjust that pot some more. It helped but I didn't go far
enough last time I tried. Right now there's over a meter of snow on the
deck and stairs. I can't even open the screen door to get to the deck.
It's just too heavy. I had it open then high winds put a 6' drift in
front of the door. I won't be going out for some time. That will take a
while to melt.




Yeah, when I heard the news about your big snowstorm a few days ago I
thought about you up there....

geez you've had a really tough winter this year!

It was all clouds and no snow which we really needed. What snow we got
came with well below zero temperatures and had no moisture in it. It
was like shoveling feathers there was so little to it. Then these two
storms hit to make up for it. So heavy, if you lift a shovel full all
you do is bend the blade of the shovel back until the snow falls off. I
ruined one and my wife ruined one. The plastic one broke the handle
off. So we finally got some much needed moisture. Still those with
their roofs collapsed into their homes or businesses aren't so happy
about it. A lot of garages collapsed taking the cars with it. Owners
are finding if the garage is detached from the house the common
homeowner's policy up here doesn't cover it! Takes a snow damage rider
few knew they needed. Many are looking at suing the agents who didn't
disclose this. Also, many to save money spaced the rafters too far
apart. They thought they saved money. I even over built the
observatory roof using steel rather than wood due to the snow. It
handled the load just fine.

Rick

--
Correct domain name is arvig and it is net not com. Prefix is correct.
Third character is a zero rather than a capital "Oh".

 




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