M106 in Canes Venatici

[coatesg]

This is the first "proper" image from my rebuilt 14" Newtonian - has been a long time coming, and more tweaking to follow, but pleased how it performed. I've made a light box which works well and used data from evenings of 13th/15th Feb to create this image (but this showed the R channel, I think, where the OAG impinges and throws an odd reflection and doesn't reduce nicely - need to sort.... :-/).

This is M106 and NGC 4248 (and a load of other faint fuzzies including at least one z>1.0 QSO right at the far left edge of the frame, as well as lots of anonymous galaxies that don't feature in anything in Simbad/Vizier). North is roughly down in this image.

L: 5h35m (56x5m + 21x3m)
R: 1h45m (21 x 5m, 2x2 bin)
G: 1h20m (16 x 5m, 2x2 bin)
B: 1h20m (16 x 5m, 2x2 bin)

ST2000XM (@-20C), 350mm double truss Newtonian @ f4.53 (1584mm FL), Losmandy Titan. Guiding via ASI120mm on OAG. 

Reduction and Processing in Pixinsight. 

The L channel behaved nicely; colour less so, and was a bit of a challenge to get it to behave, especially the background which I needed to be quite firm with to remove blotchiness. I think really the moral is: more data... a bit more colour (and lum!) data might allow a bit more from the outer reaches and a much smoother background, but clear skies are what they are... Haven't got any HA here to bring out the jets, but the brightest (above/south of the core) is just about visible.

All comments/suggestions/improvements appreciated! Thanks for looking.

 

LRGB:

Lum channel (pushed a touch more than the above...) - EDIT: had a tweak of it:

[Demonperformer]

Wow.

I read the write-up before having to scroll down to see the picture and it knocked my socks off. I guess a 14" scope makes a difference! And I actually prefer the colour version (but what would this philistine know?).

More data? Well, can't we always say that? But, if you insist on getting more and adding it to the mix, I will look forward to seeing 'Mk II'.

[Craney]

Improvements......  errr?....   it might be a tad better if your telescope was in Earth orbit.

[alan potts]

A superb image very well done, I am told by those that know it is not easy guiding a scope over 1m as I have two that go deep int the 2m plus. Thanks for sharing.

Alan

 

[alacant]

5 hours ago, coatesg said:

comments/suggestions/improvements

Perfect. Just shows that bigger actually is...

We're quite a way behind with our 254/1200 renovation so this is just the inspiration we needed for galaxy season.

[tooth_dr]

Seeing stuff like this makes me want to try my big newt for some galaxy imaging. Totally stunning image. 

[Petergoodhew]

6 hours ago, coatesg said:

This is the first "proper" image

That IS a "proper image"!  Amazing detail. More data always helps - but this looks pretty close to perfect already. A cracker Graeme.

[coatesg]

Thanks everyone for the kind comments - glad you liked it!

2 hours ago, alan potts said:

A superb image very well done, I am told by those that know it is not easy guiding a scope over 1m as I have two that go deep int the 2m plus. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks Alan, the guiding behaved itself fairly well here, and the Titan has PE that's easy to guide out, but balancing the scope is another issue - already has ~80lb of counterweights on there...! I need to figure out a way of tuning up the dec balance - adding small weights is probably the way forward! 

5 hours ago, Demonperformer said:

And I actually prefer the colour version (but what would this philistine know?).

Thanks, I prefer it too at the moment: having looked again, I need to tidy up the B/W version a bit - the background could be better. You could carry on and never stop fiddling with images...!

2 hours ago, tooth_dr said:

Seeing stuff like this makes me want to try my big newt for some galaxy imaging. Totally stunning image. 

Thanks  It certainly is built for galaxies - and it has the scale to potentially make a lot of the smaller NGC objects accessible (and the light grasp to go for faint stuff - the brightest star top left here is ~12th mag, and there's a 20th mag quasar near the anonymous galaxy cluster that's clear as a bell). Should keep me busy for some time...

[tooth_dr]

I need to stop looking at this image. Having bad thoughts about a cooled CCD

[Barry-Wilson]

Well framed and a splendid M106 Graeme.

More RGB would help as you have suggested, as would some Ha to capture the active regions in the core and the faint Ha jets.

A very good image neverthelesss and one to be justifiable proud.  Excellent work.

Only minor comment would be, could you place your copyright watermark to one side of M106, it spoils the view of the detail you've patiently captured .

[coatesg]

On 02/03/2018 at 15:19, Barry-Wilson said:

Well framed and a splendid M106 Graeme.

More RGB would help as you have suggested, as would some Ha to capture the active regions in the core and the faint Ha jets.

A very good image neverthelesss and one to be justifiable proud.  Excellent work.

Only minor comment would be, could you place your copyright watermark to one side of M106, it spoils the view of the detail you've patiently captured .

Thanks Barry - definitely more RGB would help (as always!), and would love to grab some HA as well, but can't see much chance to add to it at the moment - have a foot-deep snow drift up against the observatory!!

I know about the watermark - the script I use needs to be a little more clever, but it was a quick fix to an issue I had... :-/  EDIT: Now shifted to top-left - should update once the imageproxy times out

 

[Grumpy_Git]

Thank you for this humbling image. 

I'm in the colour version too, it has an extra level of subtlelty for me.

[Rodd]

Wow is right.....you could make a living building telescopes I think.  Amazing detail

Rodd

[coatesg]

4 minutes ago, Rodd said:

Wow is right.....you could make a living building telescopes I think.  Amazing detail

Thanks Rodd - have a couple of handy mates to thank for some parts they helped make. The scope is more "functional" than good looking!

[Rodd]

1 minute ago, coatesg said:

Thanks Rodd - have a couple of handy mates to thank for some parts they helped make. The scope is more "functional" than good looking!

Could be the ugliest thing in the world.....But it ranks!

Rodd

[Cyclops]

That is fantabulous!

[iansmith]

Cracking image. You should be very pleased with that.

Cheers, Ian.