Sculptor Galaxy NGC 253

[aarong]

Hi all,

I have been waiting to image this galaxy for the past few months, but was delayed by wildfires, hail storms and cloudy skies. Finally got the chance to play.

Total 5:30 hrs exposure.
10 bias frames 10min at 1600 iso
30 dark frames 10 min at 1600 iso
33 light frames 10 min at 1600 iso.

Meade LX90 8"
Canon DSLR 1Dmk3

Still learning so feedback is always welcome,

Aaron

P.S. More pics at Aaron Greenville Photography (https://www.facebook.com/AaronGreenvillePhotography) FB page

[RickS]

Nice work, Aaron.

[Larryp]

Very nice!

[allan gould]

Great image Aaron, you are getting to grips very quickly with all the facets of astrophotography.
Allan

[Jon]

Nice work Aaron. Excellent mottled detail and some nice colour contrast

[aarong]

Thanks guys!

[Gem]

Good work. As you can see - lots of data makes for lots of detail! Well done! :)

[aarong]

Thanks Gem. I never really know how much data is enough? I guess it depends on your equipment and target.

[MGTechDVP]

The Sculptor Galaxy looks great... so bright, did you stretch the levels much to get that luminance?

[aarong]

Yes I did two stretches. The first is usually quite aggressive and then a second, but not as much. Sometimes I can get away with another, but the noise levels of my old camera are pretty high.

[Spookyer]

Looks good to me

[kosh]

nice work!

I tried this about a month ago with less than 30mins of exposure through en ed80 and what a disaster!
but it was only fooling around as the weather wasn't really good for it, anyway, keep up the good work! :thumbsup: