Silver dollar galaxy NGC253

[cometcatcher]

This image is a bit of a weird one, it was taken over two nights with two completely different scopes. Total number of frames about 220, subs from 1 minute with a SW ED100 refractor at F7.2, to 30 seconds with a 6 inch F5 Newtonian. Stacked in DSS, stitched and processed in photoshop. Pentax K-x.

Bigger at Astrobin.

http://astrob.in/103306/0/

[BruceG]

That's a great result! I don't know how you do all that blending of data. Credit is due to you guys who understand how all this stuff works :)
Cheers,
Bruce.

[cometcatcher]

Thanks Bruce. This is the first time I've blended images from two different scopes. It wasn't too hard as the 6" has 765mm focal length and the ED100 with reducer is 720mm so they are kinda similar. Just took some minor resizing and rotating to match.

[5ash]

Really nice picture , was it easy to resize, to blend the two ? I can just see some diffraction spikes on the brightest stars from the Newtonian pictures.
Regards philip

[Pinwheel]

love it, great image.

[cometcatcher]

Thanks Philip and Doug.

It wasn't difficult to match them, just time consuming and patience needed. I was ready for an all nighter of astro but the fog rolled in which left me nothing better to do lol.

[SimmoW]

Epic effort Kevin, with a good result.

Would software like PIPP do the realignment for you in bulk? Maybe an expert could chime in, I know of the software but don't know if it can do such things in batch mode. If it can, it'll save you a heap of time (meaning you'll still wonder what to fiddle with on those cloudy nights!)

S

[cometcatcher]

I have no idea Simon what other software could do it automatically. It's probably a once off anyway. I'm finding the SW ED100mm refractor produces sharper and better defined images than the 6" Newt and it goes just as deep. In theory a 100mm refractor shouldn't equal a 155mm Newt, but the mirror on my Newt is old and maybe not as reflective as it used to be. So for now I'll be shooting only with my refractors.

[raymo]

Yes, very nice Kevin. It's odd [to me, anyhow], that the core is brightly
illuminated, but the rest of the galaxy is dimmer than it appears in my
and other images of it. Also, the overall colour of the whole image is
different. With the total exposure time, I would have thought the whole galaxy would be bright,[it's actually better as it is].
raymo

[cometcatcher]

Thanks Ray, colour is a funny one. The galaxy colour with the 6 inch Newt was different to the colour from the refractor. There's probably a million and one things that affect it, right down to type of lens coating. In the end they balanced each other out when combined.

[Retrograde]

Wow great result!
Also some interesting methodology - never even thought you could use two different scopes to produce one image. I guess it just shows what is possible :thumbsup:

[cometcatcher]

Thanks Pete. It was fun seeing if it was possible myself.