NGC7479

[ollypenrice]

Another image done with Billy Harris using the dual TEC140/Mesu200/Atik460/Moravian 8300 co-owned by Mr and Mrs Gnomus, Tom O'Donoghue and myself. This has 9.5 hours of LRGB data captured in a single night. The galaxy is very small on the sky so this is cropped and shown at full resolution. The upper edge of the galaxy comes to an abrupt end, something which looks like a processing artifact but isn't. This is just how the galaxy's bright matter cuts off.  In the 14 inch Meade we were just able to make out the bar as an elongated streak but saw no sign of the disk.

Olly and Billy.

[Rodd]

No artifact to these eyes.  Wow--who needs a 12" scope.   Holds up to Full resolution very nicely.  A galaxy hunter indeed!

Rodd

[andrew s]

Very good image as is the NGC772 but both would benefit from double the image scale (and resoution) in my opinion.

Regards Andrew 

[ollypenrice]

14 hours ago, andrew s said:

Very good image as is the NGC772 but both would benefit from double the image scale (and resoution) in my opinion.

Regards Andrew 

Agreed, for sure. However, from our site I think we'd soon be in the land of 'empty resolution.' When processing these images I resized them upwards when working on sharpening and noise reduction and it was almost tempting to leave them a little resized. They didn't look bad. I dare say that the 5.5 inch aperture is imposing an upper limit on resolution but a larger scope would soon find itself limited by the seeing. I'm philosophical about trying small targets for which I don't have the image scale: they just are small but they can still make enjoyable projects by way of a change.

Olly

[MartinB]

That is very pretty!  Now if there is a close by bright guide star the Meade with adaptvie optics might be interesting...or maybe not!

[ollypenrice]

4 hours ago, MartinB said:

That is very pretty!  Now if there is a close by bright guide star the Meade with adaptvie optics might be interesting...or maybe not!

Sometimes I'm asked about adaptive optics (indeed I think Billy asked me about this during his visit) and the only people I know who have used it are you and Peter Vesey. Have you ever posted a review of the system? I seem to remember your saying that it was both effective and a pain! Par for the course in AP, I guess...

Olly

[MartinB]

My comment was a bit tongue in cheek Olly.  Given a mag 8 or brighter guidestar I do think AO can increase resolution in seeing limited conditions but it does add an extra layer of complication - restriction of suitable targets, calibration of 2 guide systems, extra weight and length of image train, another piece  computer dependent kit ready to misbehave and so on.

Stick with the Tec, let the Mesu take the strain and enjoy the views through the 14" Meade!   

[ollypenrice]

9 hours ago, MartinB said:

My comment was a bit tongue in cheek Olly.  Given a mag 8 or brighter guidestar I do think AO can increase resolution in seeing limited conditions but it does add an extra layer of complication - restriction of suitable targets, calibration of 2 guide systems, extra weight and length of image train, another piece  computer dependent kit ready to misbehave and so on.

Stick with the Tec, let the Mesu take the strain and enjoy the views through the 14" Meade!   

Sound advice...

lly