Ngc 1365

[marc4darkskies]

This is only a quick & dirty processing of the first 3 hours of Luminance taken on a warm night (CCD @ -15C). Seeing was pretty good. Another 3 hours is needed to crisp up the the detail and to minimize the need for noise control.

Hopefully this Friday for some more Lum and to start the RGB - fingers crossed! In any case, the OS RC360 seems to be delivering the goods :D!!

Full Res Full Frame:
http://www.pbase.com/gailmarc/image/158354874/original

Cheers, Marcus

PS: Please, no comments about noise, mega data or viewing at 67% ;) :lol:

[strongmanmike]

Weeell I waaas going to saaaay... I can see some noise (well a lot of noise actually) and you need perhaps another 12 or 30hrs and yeees it does look good at 67% and reeeeally good at 33%....buuuut I wont, promise! :D

He, he, you asked for that :lol: naaah, early days I can tell but t'is lookin purdy good Marcus, bout what I was expecting from your big bad Italian boy :thumbsup:

You are a bit of a master at using that dreaded decon that almost everyone else struggles with (including me)....must get some lessons from you some time!

Mike

[Leonardo70]

Wonderful Marcus !!

All the best,
Leo

[Peter Ward]

OK.

You get the Oscar for NGC 1365

Suffice to say: galaxies like focal length and aperture. :thumbsup:


but
67%?
what were you thinking???? :lol:

[gregbradley]

A fabulous image Marcus but have to mention a lot of the stars look elongated and eggy. Some look very round and some look like the halo is eggy but the core is less so. What is causing that?

Greg.

[Warhen]

Wonderful Marcus- one of my very favorite galaxies. Would love to work with f.l. like this! Looks great.

[RickS]

Great stuff, Marcus. Hurry up with the colour version :D

[lazjen]

Looks good so far and I look forward to seeing more of it in the future. :)

[multiweb]

Terrific details in the core and dust lanes. Very cool. Final is gonna be epic. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[Stevec35]

Looks good Marcus. The detail in the centre is incredible.

Cheers

Steve

[marc4darkskies]

:) Thanks Mike. Here is lesson number 1. Light decon only especially if applying to the whole frame. It is quite simple really - too many people go too hard from the get-go but if your optics and seeing are both good, things really only need to be "crisped up". Lesson 2: Selectively layer increasingly heavy decon levels onto high signal areas only - carefully. I haven't done MSDLB (Multistrength decon layer blending) lately but I know it works. I tend to use PS sharpening routines on high signal areas these days - again, very gently.



Thank you Leo



Cheers Peter - Me? 67%? Never!!! When you get that new 16" Alluna I'll ask, nay, I'll demand that you post full res images!! :)



Thanks Greg. I'm not sure where you're looking but bear in mind this is indeed a quick & dirty that will be discarded when I get more data. I just wanted to see (and show off) the detail I'm achieving with this wonderful scope. Dare I say, I'll leave the 300% star roundness check until I'm doing the final processing on a full set of data! :lol: That said there may be stacking issues or faulty / overdone processing steps in play here. I've also noticed minor imaging train flexure issues after crossing the meridian that are just enough to cause sub pixel stacking problems which manifest as elongation in the combined image. That's one of the reasons I bought PI - to use it's star stacking capabilities to remove slight mismatches with deformation (not used in this quick process - I just used vanila CCDStack)



Cheers Warren! All hail focal length!:bowdown: :)



Thanks Rick! I will sacrifice a chicken to the weather gods tonight :P



Thanks Chris - me too!



Thanks Marc! I'll try not to dissappoint!



Cheers Steve! I've compared to a couple of benchmarks (Gendler and Pugh) and I'm still grinning!:D Just too much noise at the moment.

[stevous67]

Hallelujah!

Nice start Markus.

Steve :thumbsup:

[Geoff45]

Even in B&W this looks stunning Marcus--so much detail in the central parts.
Geoff

[marc4darkskies]

:) Thanks Steve!



Thanks a lot Geoff!

[DJT]

Yup, I can see why you are grinning like the proverbial Cheshire cat.

Detail is great for a quick and dirty. Top job:thumbsup:

[gregbradley]

Thanks Greg. I'm not sure where you're looking but bear in mind this is indeed a quick & dirty that will be discarded when I get more data. I just wanted to see (and show off) the detail I'm achieving with this wonderful scope. Dare I say, I'll leave the 300% star roundness check until I'm doing the final processing on a full set of data! :lol: That said there may be stacking issues or faulty / overdone processing steps in play here. I've also noticed minor imaging train flexure issues after crossing the meridian that are just enough to cause sub pixel stacking problems which manifest as elongation in the combined image. That's one of the reasons I bought PI - to use it's star stacking capabilities to remove slight mismatches with deformation (not used in this quick process - I just used vanila CCDStack)


That makes sense. Sounds like you're on to it. Detail is fantastic.

Greg.

[marc4darkskies]

Thanks David! :D



Thanks again Greg!

And don't forget Peter Ward's famous admonishment " ... Even Cindy Crawford has a mole". :) As long as we're not talking about THE Mole (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rc5G04nJecI) (love that scene), it's somthing I try to remember when critiquing images :)

[alpal]

Hi Marcus,
that's fantastic - I want to see more!
Thanks for the preview.

cheers
Allan

[marc4darkskies]

Thanks a lot Allan! Stayed up tonight till after moonset hoping it would stay clear ... no such luck. :( That's it for this lunar cycle I think.

[gregbradley]

And don't forget Peter Ward's famous admonishment " ... Even Cindy Crawford has a mole". :) As long as we're not talking about THE Mole (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rc5G04nJecI) (love that scene), it's somthing I try to remember when critiquing images :)[/QUOTE]


Yes, too true! Looking forward to the completion of your image. I see the 11000 chip is still a leading CCD sensor for astrophotography. I am looking at getting another one at some point.

Greg.

[marc4darkskies]

I can vouch for that! :D ...

... Bench testing STXL 11002 & friends ...

[gregbradley]

Sweet!

Gonna use it with an AOX?

Greg.

[marc4darkskies]

Yep! Best part though is Ambient-60C!! :thumbsup:

[FranckiM06]

Great shot Marcus. It is very nice image
Franck

[alpal]

What a pity - I stayed up last night too but faint clouds came over & that was it - not a single shot.
I haven't got anything since March.
Melbourne is the pits as there are too many clouds.

[E_ri_k]

Looks pretty good for "quick and dirty" I bet the final will be amazing :)
Erik

[strongmanmike]

Maaaate, you now really do have the ultimate amateur setup :eyepop:...next will be to move it too Siding Spring so the last piece of the puzzle is in place = more clear skies and consistently better seeing....and you will be the envy of all us mere mortals :cheers:...err which you already are :lol:

Great stuff :thumbsup:

Mike

[marc4darkskies]

Thank you Franck!



Yeah, where is El Nino when you need it?! :sadeyes:



Cheers Erik!



Don't think I'll ever go remote like that. I prefer the hands-on / tinkering approach to the hobby - no monthly boarding fee either.

[Shiraz]

:thumbsup:great image Marcus - beautiful fine and smooth detail. almost seems to be a pity to mess it up with colour :lol:

[marc4darkskies]

Thank you Ray! If the Sydney monsoons ever abate I'll finish it!! ... And I promise not to ruin it! :)

[Phil Hart]

That is very impressive Marcus.. nice work!

How much clearance you got in your dome with that baby?

Phil

[marc4darkskies]

Thanks a lot Phil!

It's a snug fit and I don't go into the obs when imaging. There's about 10cm at closest approach (between dome motor box and secondary motor which sticks out the front). This is a reasonably to-scale diagram (http://www.pbase.com/gailmarc/image/153732147). A 16" probably wouldn't fit without risk of hitting something.

[Ross G]

Amazing detail and sharpness Marcus.

A great looking photo.

Ross.

[marc4darkskies]

Thanks Ross!

I've now added more luminance data (total is now 5.75 hours) & reprocessed. Galaxy now has more depth and, of course, there was less noise to contend with. Started gathering RGB too but now being thwarted by the weather :mad2:.

Original full frame image has been replaced (see here (http://www.pbase.com/gailmarc/image/158354874/original)) and I've added a close crop.

Full Res (Close crop):
http://www.pbase.com/gailmarc/image/158604290/original

[strongmanmike]

He, he, he...very cool ;)

How was the seeing for the later session/s?

Mike
ps. Now wipe that Cheshire grin off your face

pss. Actually, I just blinked your result with my final processed 1365 luminance (B&W provides good contrast) and I have to say while yours is definitely showing finer details and features (plus you are the decon master), I was quite surprised just how close my little fast British Newt is getting to your big bad Italian Stallion :P...I'd still have your scope over mine for galaxies any day though :thumbsup:...can I? :question: :lol:

psss. Just noticed your signature quote has changed too...ya happy now huh? :lol:

[alpal]

Dear Mike,
Markus has the best NGC 1365 ever posted on Ice in Space - by far -
the only telescope that beats it is the 32" Chilean Advanced Robotic Telescope:

http://www.chart32.de/index.php/galaxies-m


cheers
Allan

[strongmanmike]

Dear Allan :lol: well said and I totally agree :thumbsup:

[alpal]

That's good Mike.
It starting to get to the point where some people have professional equipment
that belongs more in a Govt. observatory than with a private amateur.


cheers
Allan

[strongmanmike]

I did scout around Marcus' huge 100% image with a big magnifying glass and managed to find some veeeery faint noise in couple of places :eyepop: (heresy)...but no thin bright decon worms were found anywhere :shrug: :rofl:

Mike

[alpal]

Dear Mike,
If you look at the 32" pic of NGC 1365 at full size you will see noise too.
I think the pros leave the noise in it to show people where the noise floor is.
It's more scientific.

Allan

[marc4darkskies]

Thanks mate! See FWHM plot attached. Note that this image was taken over 2 nights over that altitude range. The session on Sat night was the best seeing with min FWHM of 1.66 arcsec.

Grin? What grin??! :D


:D



High praise indeed! Thanks Allan! I hadn't actually seen the 32" version before.



Hmmm, not sure about the term "professional" :question:. That to me has connotations of modern, large aperture (>32") scopes with advanced AO. Go back 30+ years though and my scope might have made it into that category (a scope that professionals would use). It's true though that todays best amateur images match or best most pro images taken in the 70s & 80s. I'm more comfortable now saying that my beastie is in the league of best amateur scopes in the world.



There was noise that I processed out - predominantly in the sky background. Can't wait to commission the new STXL though so I can operate at -35C (this image was done at -15C).


Cheers, Marcus

[gregbradley]

A wonderful image Marcus. Very detailed.

Greg.

[strongmanmike]

I was of course kidding :)

[marc4darkskies]

Cheers Greg. Surprising how good the seeing has been around here so far this summer. Have you noticed?

[marc4darkskies]

Kidding? Why would you joke about such a serious matter? The noise! THE NOISE!! I've had to speak to my therapist about ..... noise ...... :scared2: but she just says wear ear plugs :rolleyes: ... she just doesn't understand erratic pixels - they just won't leave me alone! ...... Must get rid of the noise ... get rid of the noise ... the nooooooise! :screwy: :P ;)

[strongmanmike]

Shhhhhh :scared2: here's (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGgk1sYY3GI) something to help....

Oh and great mono 1365 btw :thumbsup:

[gregbradley]

Yes a few nights have been very good. I have started doing a new run of imaging. I also have a few projects waiting for processing or a bit extra exposure time.

Greg.

[David Fitz-Henr]

Well I have been busy lately and realised I haven't visited IceInSpace for quite a while now and the thought occurred to me that my old mate Marcus would have some new pics from the new super-scope!
A great image Marcus showing exceptional detail :thumbsup::thumbsup: ... but where is the colour? I mean, with all the great weather we've been having lately ... :rofl: