The 400 hour image...

[ollypenrice]

ORION.

This is a marathon O'Donoghue-Penrice production owing more to Tom than to me. Tom began the luminance and Ha in Spain four years ago using one Tak 106N/Atik 11000. We then set up the dual Tak rig here and carried on, finishing the colour and Ha acquisition a couple of weeks ago. (Running three Taks and three full frame cameras we collected 24 hours of data in two memorable nights!)

Tom did the stitching of the part-stretched data and handed a copy over to me, so the final processing here is mine though Tom's own version is in the pipeline. Higher resolution data has been added from the TEC 140 to enhance M78, the Horse, Flame, Running Man and M42.

It's a thirty panel mosaic weighing in at 1.03 Gig in Tiff format and covering nearly 270 million pixels. A full size print would be nearly 8 metres high, which is the whole point, really. We'd like to find a corporate buyer or museum interested in funding such a vast print. Exposure time is over 40% longer than the Hubble Deep Field at about 400 hours (AKA 1.44 million seconds or just over 16 days.  ) Thanks also to Yves for the use of his camera when we had three Taks on the job or when mine was tied up on the TEC.

We cannot link to a very large version because of the risk of theft so this is little more than a thumbnail to give the idea of the beast. We're sorry about that but with so much time invested we have to be careful. At full size M42 alone fills the screen.

Just to reiterate, Tom's contribution exceeds mine on this. We hope you like it.

Tom and Olly

Link to a bigger one here: http://ollypenrice.smugmug.com/Other/Best-of-Les-Granges/i-LgK642h/0/O/ORION%20400%20HRS%20WEB.jpg

[JB80]

That is outstanding Olly!

Congratulations to Tom and yourself.

And for everybody else do check out the larger image in the link, it's well worth it.

[kalasinman]

A truly peerless accomplishment! Thanks very much gentlemen all.

[VikN46]

Amazing, stunning and just WOW!!!! 

[melsky]

Truly amazing, I would love to see this as a massive print.

Congratulations Tom & Olly

[kyokugaisha]

If you don't win Astronomy Photographer of the Year for that then there is no justice in the world! Astonishing.

[AndyUK]

Words fail me... totally...  Huge commitment, an incredible accomplishment and an almost unbelievable result - Congratulations to you both!

[strutsinaction]

Fantastic achievement, well done and congratulations to you both. Looking forward to your next collaboration!

Regards

John

[Chris]

Ok, I think you've proved beyond a shadow of doubt that you're the ultimate widefield junky of us all

Congratulations Tom and Olly I hope you get this outstanding (and in a league of its own!) mosaic commissioned, it truly deserves it!

I know I'm going to enjoy looking at the Jpeg fro some time, so thanks for sharing

[Dave Lloyd]

Simply beautiful!!! I shall also be coming back again and again just to stare and find new stuff.

Edited February 20, 2015 by Dave Lloyd

[Scott]

words cannot do this justice. truelly inspirational and such commitment to your craft. "well done to you both" hardly covers it but I'll say it anyway. Hope to see it hanging one day

[iksose7]

This is setting a very high standard for amateur astrophotography, congrats to you both and good luck with getting someone to print the beast! Look forward to seeing Toms version.

Callum

Edited February 20, 2015 by iksose7

[cfpendock]

Actually, this will make a fine reference image for anyone interested in this bit of the sky.  Amazing.  And what a lot going on!

Chris

[RichM63]

I'll run out of superlatives! It really is an amazing result. Congratulations to both you and Tom. Also a huge thank you for sharing a sample of this Masterpiece.

It truly deserves to be published and exhibited full size.

I look forward to the forth coming TV documentaries.

What' next?

[Piero]

Congratulations to both of you! 

wonderful image!

[Druid]

Fantastic stuff ... 

[Brent]

Wow, simply stunning! I would make a trip to see an 8 metre print of this.

[perfrej]

Well, there really isn't much to say about this as it is just about as perfect as it can get. I really, really like the rendition and colour!

Hats off to you both!

/per

[johnrt]

What can I say about this? I just don't know. I really don't. Stupidly good. Absolutely ridiculously good.

[Martin Meredith]

Fantastic! This could go equally well in a science museum or an art gallery.

Martin

[Davey-T]

Amazing stuff men, dread to think how long it would take to amass 400 hours of data in the UK probably 40 years 

Dave

[Grant]

Wowsers Olly! That's awesome!

You guys must be very proud, and rightly so :-)

[Robp]

Amazing, has to be one of my favourite astro images I've seen.

I wonder how much it would cost to get a full size print made?

[RobertI]

Stunning. Please keep us posted on your progress with the poster, I would pay good money to see an 8 metre version of this! In the meatime I shall have some fun tonight identifying the various DSOs on the image.

Edited February 20, 2015 by RobertI

[Steve]

Tom, Olly, that really is astounding! 

Thank-you for sharing.