M83 at f14 With TEC140ED

[prejto]

As an experiment after a long break from imaging I tried my TEC140 with an Astrophysics BARADV (2x barlow). I didn't know what I expected imaging at f14 and .5 arc-sec. I was pleasantly surprised!

This is not a long integration: 29 5 min subs in Luminance at f14, and 27 subs 5 min at f7  (9 each in RGB) or a total time of 4.7 hours taken from my new observatory near Rylstone, NSW, Australia (about 4 hours West of Sydney) The camera was a mono Trius SX694 and the L filter was a 2" Astronomik, color was through Baader 2.5" RGB.

Processing was 99% in Pixinsight, also a first for me. 

Full res here: https://www.astrobin.../full/voc1ex/0/

Thanks for looking.

Peter

Edited June 19 by prejto

[Mr Spock]

That is a lovely image 👍

[Boki Aristarh]

Spectacular! 

[Rodd]

Awesome. Smashed the warnings about imaging with extra glass in the light-path. 

[TiffsAndAstro]

Spider web levels of detail in the dust lane. Amazing

[Roy Foreman]

Excellent.

[AstroGS]

Beautiful colours & beautiful image - well done.

F14 + sub-5hrs data = A testament that "the need for speed" is not the only way to a great image. 

[MartianHill]

OMG that is spectacular 👍

[mareman48]

Sweet, now encouraged to get my 200PDS out and do some deep sky imaging 😃

[tomato]

Superb👍🏼

[prejto]

Thanks All for your kind and encouraging words!  After a 4 year break from imaging (moving, building a house and observatory!) this was a most satisfying experiment that just haoppened to go right. I went into it expecting nothing. Now, I'm anxious to try this setup on my TEC-180 that is currently out of sevice due to an OTA flange that has too much movement. The new custom flange will, I'm sure,  solve the problem with my 6+ kg of equipment hanging off the rotator....

Thanks again!

Peter

[Space Hopper]

Lovely image. Do you have a 140 and a 180 Tec ? 🤔 You don't list a 140 in your signature ?

The 140 is quite a nice little scope by all accounts.

[Sunshine]

this is a beautiful image!

[prejto]

Rob, Yes, I do have a TEC-140ED.  I think unfortunately it has assumed a back seat when I got my TEC180 and set up remotely only to have a huge number of technical issures with the camera, then the rotator, bad fittings, and finally a recent discovery that the TEC180 flange on the OTA was moving enough to negate any attempts to reliably remove tilt from a large sensor. At times I was so despondant that I didn't want to image with the "baby" scope. Big mistake, obviously. Now, I've seen the light. The TEC140 is quite amazing. So  can be the TEC180 as I am extremely close to finally resolving the issues over the past 4 years!

Edited Friday at 08:21 by prejto

[ollypenrice]

I think that your image is as close to perfection as we are ever likely to see. It is absolutely exquisite on all counts. Bravo.

It would be interesting to compare it with one shot with luminance at native FL (which is how my own galaxies are shot with my TEC 140.) Most of the theory I can think of says it won't make much difference but I once processed some data shot by Julian Shaw on M106 using an AP extender on a 6 inch refractor and it was quite outstanding.

Olly

[tomato]

Hopefully when folks see that this top notch image was taken with an “old tech” CCD camera folks will get some interest when these cameras come up for sale.

[ollypenrice]

On 21/06/2024 at 14:06, tomato said:

Hopefully when folks see that this top notch image was taken with an “old tech” CCD camera folks will get some interest when these cameras come up for sale.

Seconded.

Olly