Ancient Whirlpool (about 3 hours)

jgs001

jgs001

Brian Cox
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John
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Got to use my new scope for the first time properly on a deep sky target over the weekend. This could really do with another 3 hours worth of data to finish it off, but I'm not sure I'd manage this framing again, which I do rather like..

Anyway, this target is about 24 million light years away. My new scope has a focal length of 1370mm, and uses Hyperbolic mirrors to create a coma free image. I need to work on the collimation, the mirrors aren't quire aligned properly, but I was in too much of a hurry to actually try it out to worry about spending a lot of time sorting that out.

m51rcbfd.jpg


Hope you like it.
 
Thats insane.
 
Crazy shot! Great picture!

Really nice picture, can you point me to any tutorials / guides on how to do this.
 
ver nicely done. can't even begin to comtemplate the distance involved in that
 
Surely you made that up! it's phenomenal!! :clap::clap::clap:
 
I understand almost nothing of what you said but its a stunning and mind-boggling image. I love it.

Andy
 
Astronomically good.

John, are you intending to shot Saturn Next Week (19th) I believe.


Graham.
 
Thanks very much everyone.

David, not really I'm afraid, not unless you've got a lot of cash to splash on kit. You need a tracking mount, capable of external feedback and control (or a very very expensive mount) to manage 10 minute exposures without trailing at this sort of focal length. It's very possibly to do short exposure, short focal length imaging with a camera tripod, have a look at http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=104518&highlight=astro. The basic principles used in that thread, are the same ones for this image, excepting the setup of the mount and scopes etc.

Cliff, why make it up :D.. these beauties are out there.

Graeme, I do intend doing Saturn this year, but it's hard at the moment, as it doesn't clear the house till really very late.

Leigh, it's relatively close to us really. I can't actually see any details in much beyond this distance, but hubble has picked up galaxies about 13.5 billion light years away. (check out the hubble deep field

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubble_Deep_Field

and the ultra deep field

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubble_Ultra_Deep_Field )
 
have you thought of sending this off to some magazine or journal?

fantastically beautiful photograph.
 
Thanks guys...

There's a reason distances are measured in light years Darren... can you imagine having to read that number out every time :D...

I reckon there probably is Bazza :D
 
That's a nice image there John. Have you cropped that much or is it the full frame? I am waiting for my moonlite focuser and I really hope that will sort out my elongated stars woe. If that sorts it and I can get 10 mins plus guided, then there's a couple of filters in the bag for my birthday later in the year!!
 
WOW thats amazing.... Ive never seen anything like that!! Well done..!!

Dont think ill get anything like that with a 300mm HAHA
 
Thank you

Sara, it's uncropped, but operating at f/9 is a bit of a pain, as it takes a long time to gather the photons, thus the 10 minute subs, although ideally another 3 hours on top would be best. Still it's what I've got till I can afford a suitable reducer. I think I've now sorted out the collimation, so that should remove the coma and other odd effects from the image too, and means I'd have to start again... there are other targets I want next, m3 for instance (although I might see about pushing it up to 2.8m for that, as globs are bright). I'm sure the moonlight will sort things out for you, just make sure it's collimated into the tube, no idea how to do that, although I think the laser is probably the best option.

Kirsty, might be a bit small in the frame, it was at 600mm...
 
Stunning image.

Just trying to get my small brain to understand the concept of that sort of distance gives me a headache.

Space fascinates me.
 
That is an absolute devastating image. I cant imagine the expense and time to set that up. Being a tv fan of the universe, superlatives escape me to see an image of such quality and originality.

Mind you the horizon might just be a tad off:naughty:
 
Thanks guys,

Dave, this is quite a local one... my little setup can't "reach" very far from my light polluted back garden.

Roger, :LOL: you maybe right, can you tell me where the horizon line is please, and I'll straighten it up :D :D

Chrizzy, I've posted a fair few on here, if you'd like to see some more, or take a look at

Deep Sky
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13334669@N07/sets/72157626027512585/

The Moon
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13334669@N07/sets/72157623806285401/

The Sun (don't try this without proper filters, you could destroy camera, equipment and eyes, ND10 and welding glass are not good enough)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13334669@N07/sets/72157624554397825/
 
Great shot... Not only does the image fascinate me but the distance it is... 24 million light years away...

That's travelling at the speed of light for 24 MILLION YEARS! And to put it into prospective, it takes light 8 minutes from the sun to earth, and it would take a Boeing 747 17 years to get to the sun from earth... Truly incredible.... Great stuff (y)
 
Thanks very much Toby, and it's still only just next door in Universe terms, the sheer distances and scale of the universe are simply mind blowing
 
This image is stunning! I've always been interested in the universe etc, thanks to Carl Sagan. Can you tell me, if I was in a space ship, at such a distance from this pair of galaxies that they'd appear to me the same size as this image, would I actually see them that clearly? I know a lot of the Hubble images are colour enhanced etc, so is this image true to life? I hope I have explained my question clearly enough!
 
Absolutely Superb photo... Very nice..

Raj
 
An absolutely fantastic image - if that's what you're getting with the kit almost straight out of the box I really look forward to your future images!
 
thanks all.

Ricardodaforce said:
This image is stunning! I've always been interested in the universe etc, thanks to Carl Sagan. Can you tell me, if I was in a space ship, at such a distance from this pair of galaxies that they'd appear to me the same size as this image, would I actually see them that clearly? I know a lot of the Hubble images are colour enhanced etc, so is this image true to life? I hope I have explained my question clearly enough!
Click to expand...

I'm using a one shot colour camera, the 450d, whilst I've boosted the saturation, I've done nothing else to the colours. Hubble uses three different emission nebula filters (the "hubble" pallette I believe is made up of Hydrogen Alpha, Oxygen III and Sulphur II combined into the three RGB channels... normally Ha to Red, OIII to Blue and SII to Green I think but it's not something I've ever done, as you need a mono camera and the expensive set of filters)

As to what you would see, I don't know if you would ever see this level of detail and colour, what the camera can see if 3 hours is more than the eye can see in the split second of photon impact. I guess if you had a large enough scope you might.

winkiwin said:
Very nice shot.

what trakking setup are you using?
Click to expand...

I'm using a Skywatcher HEQ5, with a guidescope and camera to make sure there's no drift during the 10 minute exposures.
 
Ricardodaforce said:
This image is stunning! I've always been interested in the universe etc, thanks to Carl Sagan. Can you tell me, if I was in a space ship, at such a distance from this pair of galaxies that they'd appear to me the same size as this image, would I actually see them that clearly? I know a lot of the Hubble images are colour enhanced etc, so is this image true to life? I hope I have explained my question clearly enough!
Click to expand...

You probably would see this image if you could get close enough, but you have to understand that depending on the speed of your ship it would take you millions of years to get there travelling at the speed of light, (31)

The human eye can detect as little as 9 photons to activate stimulas and is the equivelant to a 100mp sensor.
 
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