M33 from Qld Astrofest

[RobF]

The astrofest skies were unusually kind (fog free) this year after 1am, allowing many of us to feast on the photons M33 and M31 if so inclined. I captured M33 data over a few nights along with some Ha, planning to combine in some data from late last year from 10 Chain Hill. Most of this was shot between 20 and 30 degrees elevation, so its pleasing to see some colours starting to come out.

Final image is almost 12hrs total, HaLRGB: 4.2/2.4/1.5/1.5/2.0 hrs taken with the the FSQ106/QHY9/HEQ5.

Marc kindly agreed to share his M33 data, which I haven't included in this first pass (err, 10th pass) attempt. Comments and critique welcome. Sigh, I'm missing AF skies.....
Larger version available to download here (https://picasaweb.google.com/UserRobF/RecentWork#6186597558821915362) - not sure why full screen zoom isn't working within Picasa sorry.

EDIT: Link to zoomable version here:
https://goo.gl/photos/oDFTp5FR9LNqWTqN7

[ozstronomer]

Great image Rob, 12hrs has really bought out the color in the galaxy and stars.

:thumbsup: Well Done

[troypiggo]

Lovely. Well processed, too.

[batema]

Beautiful image Rob. Well done.

[Somnium]

Great image Rob, it looks spectacular

[multiweb]

Top shot Rob. Really nice colors and heaps of details. You've got just the right balance. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[Stevec35]

Very, very nice indeed Rob! Great detail and lovely colour.

Cheers

Steve

[Paul Haese]

Colours are great Rob. Pity about zoom not being available, so I cannot comment much more. Detail appears good in the smaller images though despite the size.

[rustigsmed]

enjoying seeing these northern objects being posted at the moment. lovely job Rob.

[Camelopardalis]

Wow Rob that's cracker :thumbsup:

[Rex]

Beautiful colour and detail and lovely dark background to make it pop. Great image Rob.

[RobC]

Great image, well done. Love the colours

Rob

[allan gould]

Beautiful image and one for next year

[graham.hobart]

That's a cracker Rob!

[Octane]

That is a fantastic rendition of this gorgeous fuzzy, Rob. Very pleased to see you dedicate a large amount of time to this!

It's been so great to see a slew of northern objects. :)

H

[strongmanmike]

Looked at this a couple of times before commenting and this is pretty good Rob, sparkles for a southern latitude capture of this galaxy and I like the blue, nice work :thumbsup:

Mike

[Spookyer]

good one Rob.

brett

[RobF]

Thanks for the encouragement guys. Really was a very memorable star party, especially the very dark hours between milky way setting and dawn.


Thanks Geoff. Martin and I have much to be thankful for after you setting us on the SGP path last year. Was great to have so many consecutive nights to fine tune my trust in various settings. Rig was purring from Astrotwilight to first light very nicely by the last few nights.


Thanks for checking it out Troy :)


Thanks Mark. Hope your job is working out great. Adam made it sound like a tough gig :)



Thanks for looking!



Thanks Marc. You sure picked a goodie coming this year. Really appreciate you sharing your data. Might start with a combination of raw L, synthetic L and your lum first to see if anything extra pops.



Glad you enjoyed Steve :)



Sorry about Picasa Paul. I've managed to get a zoomable link up here:
https://goo.gl/photos/oDFTp5FR9LNqWTqN7. Don't zoom too far though - at a bit over 2 arcsec/pixel and low altitude the make up may not survive going in too close :lol:



Yep. Was special to be able to image this one over a series of nights.



Thank you!



Thanks Rex. Tried to tweak it right but always exciting when decent data starts to come together....



Thanks Rob!!



Show no mercy Allan. As you know our usual summer clouds make it hard to get on M31/33 after Oct most years. Sigh!



Appreciate you checking it out Graham



Appreciate the encouragement H. I've been to 6 Astrofests and every year try to plan out every hour of the week. But, this is the first time its been almost flat out un-interupted imaging. Feeling so spoiled!



Many thanks Mike. Galaxies are a struggle on top of usually having piecemeal data. Tried to suck down a little extra blue data to help compensate for the low altitude.



Thanks Brett. You should be able to pillage this one soon from home hopefully.....:)

[Regulus]

What they all said. A nice result.

Trev

[jjjnettie]

:) The colours are fabulous!

[RobF]

thanks for checking it out Trevor



Thanks Jeanette. This one has always played 2nd fiddle to Andromeda for me, so was pleasing to stay put until enough data to do it justice this time around.

Imagine if we pooled all the data from those scopes that were pointing north at 2am though. Not fun to process, but then we'd have some detail!

[DJT]

Pretty much its all been said but the colours in this are great, nicely done!:thumbsup:

[RickS]

Another upvote for the colours, Rob :thumbsup: Nicely processed.

Cheers,
Rick.

[RobF]

Glad you enjoyed it David!



Thank you Obi-Wan! Not really up there with your fantastic SRO data, but I've always wanted some half decent colour and Ha data to play with on this one. Lesson learned on how much data it takes to get even a brightish galaxy to pop though. :)

[peter_4059]

Great capture Rob. Very smooth and plenty of colour and detail. Thanks for sharing. Are you missing those AF sunrises also?

[RobF]

Thanks Peter. We were sure spoiled for data this time around.

Alas, yes. Often start day dreaming about those awesome dark early mornings. Not usually a morning person, but I have to admit there is definitely something to saying hello to the sun with a Crownie :) :cheers::cheers: