Sharpless 106 - 200" Palomar Telescope - 60 second image

[NickH]

The team at Palomar captured this data, and kindly gave me the FITS files (7 of them in various narrow bands from the Wide field infra read camera) to process

The bands are H, H2, KS, KS1, KC, BRG and J band

The IR bands are detailed on the WFIR camera specs

60 second exposure x 7

I guess this shows quite nicely why aperture is king

This is a 20% scaled down version. Each FITS file was 36MB approx in size

[Sam]

Not quite a grab and go scope! thanks for posting that Nick, you must be very pleased to have had the opportunity to go there.

Sam

[NickH]

Consdiering the raw data in some bands was quite rough (see example), I am quite pleased with the outcome to be honest

[Psychobilly]

hmmm ... what an opportunity

Thanks for sharing the image with us Nick

Peter...

[NickH]

Thanks. There is more to come... but not just yet

Here's the J band...again just to show the issues with image processing

[Psychobilly]

it's interesting to compare to this 20" RC LRGB image of some 130 mins total exposure...

So when's the article scheduled for AN?

Peter...

[NickH]

130 minutes vs 7... but still, and that was the MAIN point of my visit, that 20" RC shot proves something...

and you should all be quite excited by the prospect of what that could be

Plus, it's got a 9 armin wide FOV

This makes for good reading...the age etc in particular

www.strw.leidenuniv.nl/~brandl/WIRC_SPIE_4841-50.pdf

[steppenwolf]

This is a very exciting processing opportunity for you - as you say though, some of that data is pretty rough around the edges but hey, ho we get that too! Keep 'em coming, Nick and don't you dare turn up at WAS on Monday without some concrete evidence that you really were there!

[NickH]

like this?

It was more exciting being up in the 200" control room with a team actually doing some imaging (spectroscopy) on coma cluster galaxies though..

The point with that image is that it's a 60 second shot in IR (i.e fighting lots of atmospheric crud)

Imagine what say 6 hours in Hubble Pallette could do..

[Tim]

Great post Nick. Enjoyed this one.

[narrowbandpaul]

great to see some NIR shots, i am looking to do some narrowband IR imaging, but dont know what wavelengths to isolate.

some great processing there nick. Is it a single CCD they use? silicon based, or do they go further IR, eg germanium

Super images,

Paul

[Beyond_Vision]

Great image Nick it must have been quite an experience gathering that data

Regards

Kevin

[narrowbandpaul]

is palomar mounted on an HEQ6?

think of the counterweights required, you'd need at least 3.....:-)

[NickH]

To qualify, the image was taken by David Thompson, an astronomer at Caltech, I have onlyy processed it... the nights I was in the imaging room, they were doing coma cluster spectra..

[NickH]

the full specs (band/ccd array etc) for the NIR cam are online (google).. as some of this is forming an article, I would rather people found out more that way

[narrowbandpaul]

fair enough Nick.

paul

[steppenwolf]

Jeez, that is one big telescope, Nick - I really do want to read that article!

[albedo0.39]

At risk of asking a "plonka" question, is there an eyepiece anywhere on the 200" scope for visual observing ?

The reason I ask, is that in a book I have somewhere, I remember seeing a chap sitting @ the prime focus looking into something.

Now I grant you a 1.25 Super Plossl might not be up to the task, but I just had to ask.

Thanks

[ashenlight]

Thanks for sharing that, the colour in the first photo is phenomenal. What an experience

Amanda

[NickH]

Not a plonker question at all, and yes, they do have eyepiece nights on occasion on the 200". (and for sure on the 60"). The 200" in years gone by was guided at prime focus by looking through an EP.

All I can say is that from what they told me (they being people who have experienced it), colour in FAINT planetary nebula is visible, and structure in the cats eye nebula is also visible.

I good one was punned at me, that if you pointed it at the Moon, you'd have a 2 inch exit hole in the back of your skull a few microseconds later.

It was (as I hope you'll see) a truly magtgical experience..and one which also, as you'll hopefully see, many people can be a part of hopefully soon

[NickH]

Here's the full scale version using Microsoft Deep Zoom

DeepZoomPix

[narrowbandpaul]

its a different game they are playing.....

very nice image.

Is there infrared camera a silicon deep depletion or is it say germanium (for imaging past 1.1um)?

60secs......geez.

[NickH]

2048 x 2048 HgCdTe Arrays for Astronomy at Visible and Infrared Wavelengths

and

http://www.astro.ufl.edu/~eiken/wirc/wirc/wirc_spie_paper.pdf

Good reading...especially the defect info

[DeanWatson]

Theres a thread above on winning the lottery and what you'd buy... Not that this thread has given me any ideas in that direction...

How much for a 200" and a mountain of your very own? Bit of a job getting them in the back of a Transit to a star party though...

Lovely oportunity Nick, I'm up to Royal Greenwich next weekend for my birthday but I suspect it won't be quite the same now!

[NickH]

Around £1,100,000,000 for that lot..

snip at half the price