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Coma Galaxy Cluster

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#1 rflinn68

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Posted 22 April 2015 - 07:01 PM

Ever since seeing this image a few weeks ago I've been wanting to try my hand at this galaxy cluster. This region of the sky is truly awe-inspiring to me. Makes the question of "Are we alone" seem pretty silly, but thats just me. ;)  

 

The last couple of nights have at least been clear so I gave it a go. Monday night I collected 24 luminance subs of 900 seconds each. Last night I got a little RGB, and with it still being clear after that I focused luminance and did a meridian flip and kept going. I ended up with 41 luminance subs but tossed 8 of them from clouds coming in towards the end of each night. Guiding was the best I've ever had last night. I went out to check things around 4am and PHD was reporting 0.30" rms total error. Very pleased with that! :D  

 

get.jpg

 

ComaCluster_LRGB_CN.jpg



#2 jeffreyj

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Posted 22 April 2015 - 07:10 PM

Not to knock on the other guys image, which is very good, but yours is incredible! The detail and processing are just fantastic. Great job!



#3 anismo

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Posted 22 April 2015 - 07:18 PM

This one is a beauty Richard!.  Sharp, nice colors and well processed.. I like it a lot and I want to image it too!!!! 



#4 17.5Dob

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Posted 22 April 2015 - 08:33 PM

Very Nice !! In my big dob, that's always been my #1 favorite visual DSO just for the mind blowing factor of seeing that many galaxies in one EP field.



#5 Madratter

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Posted 22 April 2015 - 09:19 PM

Smoking!



#6 Madratter

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Posted 22 April 2015 - 09:20 PM

Did I say HOT!!! :)



#7 josh smith

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Posted 22 April 2015 - 09:21 PM

Awesome!!!  I told you it was a fun target :)



#8 Bradicus

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Posted 22 April 2015 - 10:19 PM

Yeah ... that's just cool.  Nicely done.



#9 rflinn68

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Posted 22 April 2015 - 10:36 PM

Thanks guys!  :D  I need to get this one printed and hang it on the wall. I just get lost in there staring at all the galaxies, each thousands or hundreds of thousands of light years across.  :bigshock:



#10 TimN

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Posted 22 April 2015 - 10:39 PM

Fantastic Richard. One of those images that really does make you feel that the universe must be teaming with life. :bow:



#11 Ricky

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Posted 22 April 2015 - 10:41 PM

Beautiful!



#12 rflinn68

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Posted 22 April 2015 - 10:58 PM

Thanks Ricky and Tim! :D  Yeah Tim, I'd say it probably is teeming with life. There's an awful lot of space in this shot and its just a tiny part of the universe.

    

Check this out you guys. Just insane! Anybody care to count the PGC, NGC, and IC galaxies that are annotated?  :lol:  There are several more that it didnt annotate.  :bigshock:

 

ComaCluster_Annotated_CN.jpg

 

 

 

 



#13 nitegeezer

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Posted 22 April 2015 - 11:29 PM

When you add the names that really makes one think.  A lot of the smaller I was thinking that it might possibly be just a star, but no, that is a lot of galaxies, and a lot of chances at intelligent life!!



#14 rflinn68

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Posted 23 April 2015 - 09:09 AM

When you add the names that really makes one think.  A lot of the smaller I was thinking that it might possibly be just a star, but no, that is a lot of galaxies, and a lot of chances at intelligent life!!

 

One in a million chances would still be several. 



#15 Footbag

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Posted 23 April 2015 - 09:20 AM

Gotta love that annotation!  Great image!



#16 jhayes_tucson

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Posted 23 April 2015 - 09:37 AM

Wow...that's an outstading image!!!  Nice job.

John



#17 terry59

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Posted 23 April 2015 - 09:42 AM

Very nice Rich. What if "they" just don't want to talk to us. It's not like we are aggressive or hostile or anything :grin:



#18 kraegar

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Posted 23 April 2015 - 10:15 AM

That picture is excellent, thank you for sharing!



#19 Madratter

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Posted 23 April 2015 - 10:27 AM

Very nice Rich. What if "they" just don't want to talk to us. It's not like we are aggressive or hostile or anything :grin:

 

It may be a bit premature for us to look for the "next" intelligent species in the universe. That presumes we have found the first one. ;)



#20 rflinn68

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Posted 23 April 2015 - 11:13 AM

:funny:  Nobody wants to talk to idiots Terry!  :p

 

Thanks Adam, John, Terry, and kraegar! Very much appreciated.  :D



#21 David Ault

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Posted 23 April 2015 - 01:11 PM

Fantastic image Richard!  You did an awesome job collecting and processing this one.  I think this is my favorite of your images so far :)

 

Regards,

David



#22 rflinn68

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Posted 23 April 2015 - 01:48 PM

Thank you David!  :D



#23 Thirteen

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Posted 23 April 2015 - 02:02 PM

No doubt a fantastic image and I'm a sucker for longer focal length work. I've been somewhat fixated on your guiding performance over your last few posts. I may PM you regarding your experience with that mount.

#24 Jon Rista

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Posted 23 April 2015 - 02:57 PM

Wow, this is amazing, Richard. I was looking for targets to image the next time I have clear skies. This and Markarian's came up as options. This is truly amazing, though...I don't think I could do this target justice if I tried after seeing this.



#25 rflinn68

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Posted 23 April 2015 - 03:19 PM

Thanks Thirteen.  :D  My guiding has been MUCH improved since binning my QHY 2X2. One reason the Lodestar is so good as a guide camera IMO is the very large pixels, 8.2um X 8.4 I believe. The QHY5L-II has very small 3.75uM pixels which also makes it a very good camera for planetary work. It responded very well to binning 2X2 for me. My Atlas Pro has also been a huge improvement over my old CGEM DX. 

 

Thanks Jon...This is really a remarkable region in the sky. Markarians Chain is really cool too, but this is insane.  :lol:  Its really fun to process too, nothing special was done here. I wondered how good I could do after seeing the image I linked to in my original post that won Image of the Day on March 31st. Mark did a great job on his and after bookmarking his image I just had to give it a go when I got some clear skies. I'm pretty happy with how it came out. I'm sure you can do a nice job on it too. This is shot at ~1150mm focal length. I dont know if you have your CCDT67 yet, but I debated a little over using it or shooting at f/8 and I'm happy I used it here. You could shoot it at 600mm and have a take on it somewhere between mine and Josh's.




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