NGC253 - My first galaxy pic

[lazjen (Chris)]

The third image from my dark site visit last weekend - NGC253. I was inspired to chase this from other posts I saw on this forum recently.

ISO800, 39 x 2min subs, 31 darks, 20 Flats/Dark Flats.

This was difficult to take as I had trouble just finding a guide star. And when I did, I couldn't seem to crack 2 min subs without errors appearing. I dropped back to 2 min for more success (I took 44 I think, so not too bad).

This has been cropped. The original had a number of artifacts on the side - I think reflections again. I may also reprocess this one again with a better selection of darks (and maybe separate groupings) as the temperature range for the light images varied significantly.

Anyway, for my first galaxy pic, I'm pretty happy.



Large version (reprocessed, see details below): https://plus.google.com/117947786043...ts/HhfA6N6hkig

[RickS (Rick)]

Not bad, Chris! You might want to get rid of the green tinge.

[lazjen (Chris)]

Ah good point - I was going a bit cross-eyed on this one so I missed that. Thanks.

Maybe this one will be better:

[Larryp (Laurie)]

Looks good, Chris!

[carlstronomy (Carl)]

Chris, nice image I agree the second one is much better.

Carl

[lazjen (Chris)]

Thanks, yes, second one is much better, for sure.

[alistairsam]

well done.
thats very impressive. nice tight stars.
what guide scope and guide cam are you using.


Alistair

[lazjen (Chris)]

I use a TS OAG, normally with an ST-i, but that's in for repairs, so this trip it was a QHY5L-II. I suspect I could fine-tune the QHY more but I haven't found time to read any manual or docs and it worked well enough with my semi-random fiddling.

I use PHD or PHD2 for guiding and I do not use a ST4 cable.

[lazjen (Chris)]

Updated OP with link to larger reprocessed version.

[Rex]

Nice job Chris, as mentioned your guiding is very good. Nice detail you've captured here as well.