A distant Galaxy

[multiweb]

Not so distant but it does look lost in that field. :)
Taken on the friday night at the SPSP 2015 with my 8" F/4 newt and QHY8. About 20 subs of 5min each so nearly 2 hours.

Not too savy on galaxies and particularly processing. Probably because I've never really done long FL imaging. M83 is actually the only galaxy I've ever shot. Apart from the milkyway. But I'm planning on changing that with a Mewlon 210 coming soon, hopefully, and brush up on processing gradients and star colours.

Got a full frame 1:1 here (http://www.astropic.net/astro/M83_GSO8_fff.jpg)[2991x1985 - 3MB] with a couple of background faint fuzzies to my surprise.

HD version here (http://www.astropic.net/astro/M83_GSO8_HD.jpg)[1920x1274 - 1.6MB]

Out of my comfort zone but looking forward to trying new things.
Tips and processing comments welcome. :thumbsup:

[Camelopardalis]

That's a beauty Marc :thumbsup:

[Rex]

Top one Mark! Love this galaxy.

[Placidus]

Your shot shows the faint outer halo quite convincingly heading out further toward the two tiny galaxies than did our shot with the 20".

[Rod771]

Looks like your up to the challenge, Marc! Nice image. :thumbsup:

[multiweb]

Thanks Mike, yeah I wasn't too sure about the halo if it was real. I noticed it in all 3 channels and it didn't go away with flat fielding, so I was wondering if it's not a processing artifact.



Thanks guys. Glad you liked it. :thumbsup:

[Atmos]

It looks a bit like there has been a selective mask that has been used to separate the galaxy from the star field (large structure wavelet). Just an observation, image is still fantastic regardless!

[alan meehan]

Very nice shot Marc,well done

[multiweb]

Yeah, it does look a bit like that hey? Went back through the stack and I did use a star mask for the whole field but not for the galaxy. Maybe something went wrong in the flat fielding. Will have to check that.



Thanks Alan. :thumbsup:

[RickS]

Looks quite nice, Marc, but not as crisp as your usual Ha images at max res.

Cheers,
Rick.

[strongmanmike]

Not bad for a B&W Ha nebula man Marc :thumbsup:... but it cold probably do with a liiittle more over processing, especially in the colour dept :P

Mike

[multiweb]

Thanks Rick. :thumbsup: Yeah, Ha is always sharper than RGB. And B&W :)



Thanks Mike. :thumbsup: You mean more saturation needed? I thought the colour saturation was enough. But that's coming from a B&W point of reference :)

[Ross G]

Nice looking galaxy photo Marc....not bad for a "non galaxy" man.

Good luck, especially when the "long" scope is setup.
Looking forward to some great galaxy photos.


Ross.