Final NGC2403 Frejvall/Grinde

[perfrej]

Jonas Grinde and I figured we should do a Parker/Carboni stunt and here it is (for those of you unfamiliar with that team, Greg Parker takes fantastic star shots and Noel Carboni does exquisite processing of them).

This is a rediculous number of L, R, G and B subs captured from my balcony 14km SE of Stockholm city centre over four nights (IN A ROW!!!). Sub lengths from 5 minutes to 15 minutes, all colours binned 2x2.

Mount: 10Micron GM1000HPS, unguided

Scope: Skywatcher 190MN Maksutov-Newton, Chipped Primary Edition

Camera: QSI 683 WSG8

Filters: Astrodon LRGB for QSI/8

Capture: CCDAutopilot controlling MaximDL (about half of the subs), CCDSoft (the other half), Focusmax

Pre-processing: BIAS and Flats in Nebulosity 3

Registration, stacking: Pixinsight

Final processing: Jonas Grinde

This image gives a glimpse of what the 190MN is capable of when steadily mounted, even considering that the primary mirror has a scratch and the secondare lacks a bit of the lower edge. The imaging resolution 1.11"/px. Superb processing by Jonas with very great care shown for the stars.

Full size here: http://filer.frejval...and_edition.jpg

[davew]

Star colours to die for !

You've upped the ante with this one Per,

Dave.

[Scott]

looks ok until you see the full size version, then it's incredible. love it

Scott

[ollypenrice]

Heh heh, a nice collaboration. Hell of a good job on the background sky as well since I don't recall Stockholm being short of extraneous photons. Stars, yes, shapely and colourful to the core.

In fact it's rather a fine piece of work, gentlemen of the North!

Do you intend to arm wrestle with Synta over the mirrors or just put a dab of matt black on the wounds?

Olly

[nytecam]

Very nice image with pink HII regions well recorded - I took 2403 on March 2 via 1000mm fl and like you, prefer north-at-the-top aspect

[Tom OD]

Beautiful, smooth background, lovely colours and detail in the galaxy. Congrats on a super image.

Tom

[sologuitarist61]

Great image!!

[Gina]

Very nice indeed - lovely

[andyo]

Great image

[Mr Bergman]

Superb capture and nice processing!

[perfrej]

Thank you all!

Jonas is really good at processing having grown up on skateboards, snowboards, motorcycles, in helicopters and in Photoshop

We both find it amazing that a £1k scope, albeit with a better focuser and a really good CCD, can perform just about on par with 14" super scopes with price tags ten times that. It also goes to show that the Maksutov-Newton design is indeed a good one that rivals the beloved refractor and can produce almost the same wonderful smoothness (I do not like to be slave to the spikes).

My 190MN had an accident before first light but it seems to work nonetheless. It does need some more collimation, though... All in all it is a perfect match for 8300-based cameras at 1.11"/px.

Olly, the fissure in the primary created by the combination of gravity and a secondary has a black felt pen mark over it. The scondary I probably have to change and I already have one ready. If the primary doesn't in the end perform as it should I will have a new one made by Orion UK. Even at an additional cost of £450 it is a good deal.

/per

[Steve 1962]

Beautiful image!

[perfrej]

Thanks, Steve!

Most of the credit is Jonas'!

/per

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Absolutely superb image. Not a very high surface brightness galaxy, as I recall from seeing it a year or two ago, but really well captured.

[Tim]

That's very pretty

I always thought the MN190 was like having a 6" refractor. Well, from tomorrow i'll be able to see if that comparison is justified, a friend wants me to take some images with his

Why Bin the colour per? Just for speed?

[vdb]

Really a beauty! And yes it can beat the 14 ...

"14" super scopes with price tags ten times that"

Do you mean any scope in particular?

I agree it's really a nice scope, and on many nights it will do about as good, but when good seeing is in play the 14 inch wins hands down. In fact even under worse conditions the 14 inch sometimes out resolves lower diameter scopes ... is it obvious to detect no, so the question remains does it really matter for website viewing, I say no, does it matter in print, absolutely.

As already mentioned I also have a MN 150 carbon, really love it, I only need to get rid of the flares around the brighter stars.

/Yves

[WaveSoarer]

That's really excellent. The colours are wonderful.

[perfrej]

Yves,

Actually I wasn't referring to your setup in the initial post but rather a number of other setups in operation in various desert environments. And youre right, a 14" wins if you can tame your mount and the seeing is excellent

Thanks, Wave

/per