Omega Centauri - NGC 5139

Here is NGC 5139 taken from the San Diego area. The challenge shooting this is due of course to this object being so near the horizon (9 degrees at max elevation). The good news is that the overall seeing was pretty good so the seeing next to the horizon wasn't so bad. The challenge is the color. I did apply Atmospheric Extinction factors to the red and blue color channels (green normalized to 1.00). That way I avoided this object coming out totally red. The image is cropped a little - I am still using 1-1/4 inch filters on an ST8300M.

Image as well as exposure and processing details are here:

http://www.jthommes.com/Astro/Omega%20Centauri.htm
(be sure to click on the image for a large resolution version)

some details.....

Scope: ES Mak-Newt 152 mm at f/4.8 (731 mm FL)
Camera: ST8300M - Astronomik LRGB filters
Mount: G11/Gemini
Guiding: Megrez 80 mm at 555 mm FL, DSI Pro, PhD Guiding

Very nice Jim, you captured it well.

Excellent job Jim!! Such a low altitude object but it came out really well. New camera I see? Congrats!

Tom

Hey how come you are imaging a southern object!

Nice shot mate.

Greg.

That's great. And just 9° up. Good job on the color corrections.

Thanks for the comments guys...

Yep Tom, new camera and new scope.

Jim Thommes

An impressive achievement at that elevation, Jim.
The colors look right on, too.

dan

Nice, very nice. Good job Jim.

cheers,

Jeff

Thanks for the comments folks.

Regarding shooting low (to the horizon), I understand Sky&Tel is running an article in their July issue on this subject. It will be interesting to see the article.