m 83

[blink138 (Pat)]

my first galaxy for well more than a year
in a vain attempt to learn collimation on my c11 i seemed to have made it worse.......... much worse haha!
anyhoo i do not think i have anywhere near decent col. but in desperation of needing to use the c11 this is what i got
this is cropped with darks an flats over two nights, the first night tracked fine the second night not so good, but i decided to mix the good with the bad, for better or for worse
also know nowt about processing
60da
55, 180s @ iso 1000
pat

[Anth10 (Anthony M)]

Pat, all the ingredients are there in this image, the spiral shows fine detail in the outer arms nicely and the shape is spot on, tracking is good too, I just think it's all there just need to spruce up the colour balance and darken the sky and it should come up a treat, well done I say, the C11 is a beauty by all accounts you should be very happy once all your ducks are in line.
Good luck.

[75BC (Brendon)]

Hi Pat,

Can’t comment on the pic as I’m a visual observer but I feel better knowing I’m not alone in my endless attempts at learning to collimate a C11. Reading about it makes it sound so easy. Easy to make it worse I say. Maybe it’s the atmosphere over Perth making it hard for us.

Brendon

[ChrisV (Chris)]

Really nice image on such a big, long focal length cat.

[blink138 (Pat)]

thanks guys.............
anthony i could not get rid of the bright centre, when i was adjusting the black slider, the edges went darker but the middle remained bright?
haha brendan i am hearing ya there fella
chris i had the f6.3 reducer in to help me
when i get home i will try and post the non cropped version so that you can see how dark the edges are and how bright the middle is
i did take flats and darks too so i don't know how or if it can be fixed?
pat

[Anth10 (Anthony M)]

I can't say definatively since I've never tried imaging M83, but I'm guessing the same principle would apply in say processing the Orion Nebula whereby you take shorter length exposures separately just for the core and mask it into your main image file to reduce the overexposed nature of the core.
Only a thought, I'm still learning the art of post processing myself. Happy to hear what others may think also.
Anth

[blink138 (Pat)]

Originally Posted by Anth10

I can't say definatively since I've never tried imaging M83, but I'm guessing the same principle would apply in say processing the Orion Nebula whereby you take shorter length exposures separately just for the core and mask it into your main image file to reduce the overexposed nature of the core.
Only a thought, I'm still learning the art of post processing myself. Happy to hear what others may think also.
Anth

no i don't think so in this case anthony, m42 is intrinsically far brighter than a galaxy outside our own where the core can be blown out in a matter of seconds
anyhow here is the uncropped version