Deeper into M31, from Les Granges

[Horwig]

Well my week with Olly is drawing to a close, and it has been wonderful to watch him working on my data. I take no credit for this image apart from capture, the rest is all olly. Thank you sir.

This is a four panel mosaic, this time I got mosaic wizard to work properly, image is 7500 pixels wide.

FSQ106, reduced to 380mm, QSI6120, 100 minutes per panel Lum, in 10 minute subs, with the data from my other mosaic to fill in the core region.

RGB was from my SX H35, 90 minutes per filter, with the Ha taken again from the other mosaic, two panels at 30 minutes.

Here is a crop to show off Olly's superb processing.

Huw

[Owmuchonomy]

Very nice.  Picked up some Ha regions there too.  You must be chuffed.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Very nice indeed!

[chiltonstar]

Wow!

Chris

[PhotoGav]

Superb image with beautiful detail, you must be delighted with that result. Les Granges & Olly certainly have great appeal - dark skies, top equipment and processing masterclasses. One day I'll make it out there!

I'm interested in the orientation of your image... Is that the 'right' way round? I had an image of M31 published in the Sky At Night magazine (woo hoo!) in that exact orientation. The only feedback I had was from an 'Irritated of Ipswich' (or something) saying that it was the 'wrong' way round and should be flipped left to right. So, which is the right way round...???!!!

[laudropb]

Great image. Fantastic detail and lovely colours.

[gnomus]

Stunning.

[StuartJPP]

Nice one...Olly's the man...

I'm interested in the orientation of your image... Is that the 'right' way round? I had an image of M31 published in the Sky At Night magazine (woo hoo!) in that exact orientation. The only feedback I had was from an 'Irritated of Ipswich' (or something) saying that it was the 'wrong' way round and should be flipped left to right. So, which is the right way round...???!!!

This is horizontally flipped/mirrored, (and rotated 180 degrees). I prefer the 180 degrees rotation to be honest, just looks better. Not too bothered about the horizontal flipping/mirroring but it wouldn't look right if the image was M42 and Horsehead for instance...

[ollypenrice]

I have to say that this is amongst the sweetest datasets I've ever had the good fortune to play with. Huw's rig is a masterpiece of organization and fine tuning and delivered perfect results.

I've always been a big 'real estate before all else' man with CCDs but working with this clean and finely resolved data from the small pixel/high sensitivity Sony chip has sewn the seeds of doubt in my mind. Huw's 4 panels were done in double quick time when you consider that he has caught a considerable whiff of the very faint outer regions as well. I like this camera! (Wallet is cringing already...) My own M31 can't match this one for delicacy so I have the TEC pointing at the target to try for more finesse in my luminance layer. We both have about the same resolution in RGB.

You just couldn't go wrong with this data and I learned quite a few new processing ideas from Huw as well, despite his claim not to have done much on the processing!

I was also very impressed by Huw's Tak reducer, which isn't like the one I had. Instead of going into the moving part of the drawtube it goes onto the back of the main tube and has no chip distance to respect. You just focus. Brilliant!

Olly

[ultramol]

extraordinary image, Just mindblowing........

[toxic]

this is a beauty very fine indeed

[davefrance]

Fantastic, well done both of you.

[swag72]

A very nice image indeed - Well done to you both

[Horwig]

Thanks all for the kind word, watching Olly's processing was a revelation, true, he used tools I use, but he paints with a fine brush, not with my dog eared yard brush ( )

The flip is a slip up. Images from both the QSI and SX cameras had been through a convoluted workflow, and when we got to Photoshop, one was horizontally flipped with respect to the other, I personally prefer the 180 degree rotation, but then we flipped the wrong camera image.

You live and learn

Huw

[kirkster501]

Fab!

[Jose Auger]

Hi Huw. Is the QSI 6120, the one with mechanical or electronic shutter? Just to know, as I am looking for a full frame CCD.

[simmo39]

What a brilliant image, Gives me something to aspire to with my M 31. I need to do a lot more work!

[Horwig]

Hi Huw. Is the QSI 6120, the one with mechanical or electronic shutter? Just to know, as I am looking for a full frame CCD.

Hi Jose, it has a mechanical shutter, it is the WSG version.

I wouldn't call it full frame, the target is tiny, 13x8 mm or there about, but it does wipe the floor with my 36x24 mm camera! 

Huw

[Horwig]

What a brilliant image, Gives me something to aspire to with my M 31. I need to do a lot more work!

In this game, the learning never stops. You ought to see my previous versions, but I'm not going to show them to anyone.

This has taken a long time, each getting slightly better, my first was with a Canon 450d, at 400mm focal length some years ago, and was abysmal, the dynamic range was far more than I expected, and I didn't know how to work around it. I didn't get back to it till last year, when I tried again with a full frame CCD with 9um pixels, and a focal length of 300mm, this time I coped with the dynamic range, but the sampling was far too coarse. This year, with my new camera and scope combination, and with this software (SGP), everything just clicked, well sort of, it still took a few attempts to get the sub length etc sorted, and I still think there's more to extract, another few attempts are called for.

There's no such thing as the perfect image.

EDIT---Just had a look at your image of the beast that is Andromeda, it's a damn sight better image than my first attempt, keep at it, don't let it beat you.

Huw

[Stardust]

stunning image

[PatrickGilliland]

Good worek and nice detrail, well done.

Paddy

[Horwig]

Finally home from my travels, and have had time to pixel peep at the image, whilst playing around with another processing routine, I remembered Hubble's Cepheid, and wondered if it could be seen, and guess what:

And in a x3 zoom:

I used this image of Rob Gendler's image to locate it, http://www.robgendlerastropics.com/M31-BYU-V1.html

He used a 20 inch RCOS, I has a 4 inch refractot, but you can just about see the star in the x3 zoom.

Chuffed

Huw

[wasteland]

The star that single handedly expanded the universe!

[ultranova]

Yes its definitely there, quite an accomplishment  considering

the different sizes in the scopes, but also the focal

lengths used, goes to show how sharp the tak is even at fl 380mm

[Horwig]

Firstly, I was wrong, Rob Gendler's image did not come from a 20 inch RCOS, the actual instrument was a 0.9 meter scope, working at f5.5, giving 0.49"/pixel. Still chuffed that an amateur scope with 1.7"/pixel could cope so well.

Just a thought, using this QSI camera on my 16 inch Newt would give 0.44"/pixel, must give it a try.

H