Micro exposed Centaurus A

[Geoff45]

http://www.astrobin.com/168798/

Nothing much doing in the way of clear weather at my dark sky site last new moon, but managed to get 3 hours on this one.
Details:
Telescope: PlaneWave CDK 12.5"
Camera: FLI Proline 16803
Mount: AP900
Exposure: 5 x B, 4 x G, 4 x R, 5 x L, all 10 minute subs.

[strongmanmike]

A very nice Quickie Geoff :thumbsup: I assume that is a blue flare from an out of field star bottom right?

Mike

[Geoff45]

Thanks Mike. Yep, I think an out of field star is the problem. If you look carefully at the corner, you can see what is clearly some sort of circular artifact

[RickS]

It's surprising what you can come up with in three hours even at long focal length. Nicely done, Geoff.

[Geoff45]

Thanks Rick. I suppose being one of the brightest galaxies in the sky helps a bit.
Geoff

[Paul Haese]

Good colour and detail Geoff. Looks like there is a slight gradient on the lower left of the image, some green cast in that position.

[Geoff45]

Thanks Paul. I'll tackle the gradient when I get some more data.
Geoff

[Placidus]

Geoff, obviously looking really good already. The details in the lettuce and meat pattie are looking very promising. The star shape and colours are amongst the very best, to the point where I wonder what I'm doing wrong. And there are already many background galaxies showing form. Very best, Mike.

[Rod771]

Looking really nice there Geoff! :thumbsup:

[astronobob]

Very Grouse result Geoff, looking forward to the final, must say them stars are looking fantastic, can sense the depth of the milky way all the way out to its boundaries, quite 3D so to speak, awesome :thumbsup:
Such fine detail in the Dust lane too, Stunning already in my books :cool2:

[Geoff45]

Thanks Mike. I must say that this wasn't an easy one to process. I did six versions using various workflows and techniques until I came up with the present one. I also did some repair work on the overexposed cores of some of the brighter stars.


Thanks Rod


Thanks for the positive comments Bob.

[Ross G]

Great looking Centaurus A photo Geoff.

Has a "natural" look but still shows deep detail and great colours.

One of my favourite photos of this object.

Ross,

[Geoff45]

Thanks a lot Ross. As I mentioned somewhere above, I had many different goes at processing this one. The "natural" look didn't come naturally.
Geoff