Centaurus A from SPSP

[Retrograde]

Hi all - my first 'real' galaxy shot. I suspect I've over-coloured it a tad :D

As I have no guiding capability on my mount I wasn't sure how 2-minute subs would turn out (as the longest I have managed previously have been 1 minute) but I managed to use 10 out of 15 in the final stack with a little rudimentary star fixing in the post processing.

ED102, unmodded Pentax K-5, 10 x 2 min subs (unguided) at ISO 2500

Astrobin link: http://www.astrobin.com/full/182929/0/

Thanks for looking!

[raymo]

Nice result Pete. It doesn't seem pin sharp, but I imagine that is because
you've had to enlarge it quite a bit owing to the shortish focal length of your scope. You should be able to get 3 minutes with good polar
alignment. Assuming that you are using your SP mount with no means of
doing an accurate P.A. I suppose you are having to do a drift align.
raymo

[Retrograde]

Thanks Raymo.
Yep not super sharp due to the size of the object in my little scope and possibly some minor tracking error. I did a pretty good drift align I think.
3 minute subs? Maybe next time :)

[Camelopardalis]

Nice one Pete, gonna need a bigger scope next :D

[Robert9]

Nice one Pete, especially well done without guiding.:thumbsup: I don't mind the slight colour enhancement.

Robert

[Retrograde]

Thanks Dunk.
Actually first I need a bigger mount...THEN I can find a bigger scope to put on it. :thumbsup:



Thanks Robert.
The blue streak next to the dust lane at about 11:00 appears to be real as it appears in other photos.

[raymo]

I have been looking at that blue streak in many images of 5128. I notice
that it is either barely seen, or not seen at all, in images that are well
colour corrected. Images with a slight blue or green tinge[ like Pete's],
show it in various degrees.
raymo

[NeilW]

Nice shot....and good to see a K5 in action too :thumbsup:

[Retrograde]

Mike Sidonio's excellent image of 5128 in the deep sky section shows this blue streak quite strongly and his looks well colour corrected to me.

There was a lot of blue and green in my image when it came out of DSS and despite my attempts to process some of it away a bit much of it remained.



Thanks Neil. Yep more power to us Pentax guys :lol:.
Cometcatcher on this forum does some great work with a Pentax K-5.

[raymo]

There's photos and there's photos. I imagine that Mike Sidonio's is
quite deep, and maybe that helps to bring it out.
raymo