Something old, something new...

Folks - a couple more images for your delectation:

Old
M57 - the Ring Nebula (planetary). I had a good old lash with this using MaximDL and the results surprised me. I was able to really hone the levels, so much so that (depending on your monitor calibration) you should be able to see the little spiral galaxy to the lower right of the image plus four stars within the nebula itself.

New
M56 - here's one that escaped processing 'til now. M56 is a super cluster. It fits almost perfectly in my field-of-view (FOV). Whilst it was pretty tough to get the balance right without burning out the core, this image is a nice balance between under and over exposure - I think

Anyhow, please enjoy!

Cheers

Dave

Those images are EXCELLENT! Really clear and sharp. You must give us a tutorial on that fancy piece of software of yours!

Dave,

What is very impressive is the fact that you are using 10-sec exposures. The irony, of course, is that we have 10-second exposures using an AP1200GTO. :lol:

Anyway, very nice results!

Anthony.

Anthony - indeed! I had to double check the FITS header just to make sure it was only 10 seconds. Whilst the ap1200 is great at tracking, the other major advantage is pointing - I can get most targets bang in the middle of the FOV first time - so that's more time for imaging and less time hunting around for targets.

Cheers

Dave

Yep, can spot the tiny incy wincy spiral galaxy with M57, nice going!