M83 (work in progress)

[naskies]

Just a work in progress... my shooting plan didn't quite work out with the clouds these past two weekends, so this is all the data I have from six nights' worth of camping.

The luminance data is looking good - lots of little background galaxies are starting to come through. The colour data is still very noisy, unfortunately. Fingers crossed for next month's new moon!

12.9 hours LRGB (6.5 1.5 2.3 2.6 hrs) with an GSO RC8, SBIG STF-8300M, Baader filters, Starlight Xpress AO + Lodestar @ 7 Hz on an EQ6.

[strongmanmike]

Excellent result Dave :thumbsup:

13hrs is a lot of data though, not sure why you feel you need more really ? :shrug:

Looks like you had great fun camping though :) is that Leyburn?

Mike

[RobF]

Sure looks pretty good to me already too Dave. Nice image scale. What software are you using for processing?

Love the widefield. I'm suffering Leyburn withdrawal already. I wanna go back now!! :sad: :astron:

[alpal]

Hi Dave,
that M83 is looking great.
I have a feeling you'll be able to dig a lot more out of that data.
Well done.

cheers
Allan

[RickS]

Dave,

Shame about the weather (I feel your pain!) but good to see you got some great data. I found with my RC10 that it does take a lot of time to get good colour at f/8. There's always the option of heavy noise reduction ;)

Cheers,
Rick.

[gregbradley]

That has a lot of potential. Are you shooting your RGB binned 2x2?
I usually do that to get the colour quickly. Sometimes I use 1x1 if I want maximum detail but usually 2x2 works nicely.

Greg.

[Larryp]

M83 looks great!

[naskies]

Thanks Mike! :) Yep, that's in Leyburn.

My RC8 has a 50% secondary obstruction, and I'm oversampling with my 8300 chip at 0.68''/px, so my 13 hrs might be a bit misleading :question:

I really like the ultra-smooth look (ala Martin Pugh's images) so I'll stop when I reach the point where adding extra data doesn't give me a big jump in detail/smoothness.

Side note - I'm up to 12.5 hours on my Cat's Paw and it's look smoooooth :D



Thanks Rob! The widefield was from Sunday night - brilliant transparency until the clouds arrived at 12.30 am :mad2: It was stacked in DeepSkyStacker and processed in Photoshop. Learning PixInSight is on my todo list...

Hope to see you out there again soon!



Thanks Allan! Yes, there's heaps more potential in the L and B data, but my R and G channels fall apart. I might collect a bit more data and have a go at it in PI.



Thanks Rick! Yeah, I'm very happy with the RC8's image quality but just wish it was a *lot* faster. How's your AG12 and Ceravolo coming along - any chance to use them in anger yet?



Thanks Greg. Yep, I was shooting 30 min L subs at 1x1 binning (0.68''/px) and 22.5 min RGB subs at 2x2 binning.

Starizona's exposure calculator with the measured sky background gives me an ideal exposure duration of 36 mins for the Ls.

I seem to be getting a good balance between capturing detail and maximising dynamic range with my subs - it's just takes a long time to get there with this scope. Binning my L subs at 2x2 (10.8 um to give 1.36''/px) might be the way to go in the future.

[E_ri_k]

That's an awesome image Dave :) Loving the pinks and blues in the galaxy.
Erik

[astronobob]

Thats awesome David, Having the RC8 F/Length definately requires a skilled operater, so amaizing whitnessing you at your workpost, speshly with your little space heater ;)

[naskies]

Thanks Erik! :)



Thanks Bob! It's good to be well prepared for next month's below-zero temperatures :lol:

[RickS]

Just a bit of testing between rain showers, Dave. I hope to have the Ceravolo running sweetly by next new moon. Fingers crossed for decent weather.

[Ross G]

Hi Dave,

The photo looks good the way it is.

Great detail and colour.

Love the location.

Ross.

[naskies]

Thanks Ross!