15Hr and 15 min NGC253 with background annotated galaxies

[allan gould]

I decided to see what data I had on NGC 253 after several home and Astrofest efforts.
All up the Luminance plus a little Ha data came to 15hr and 15 min, so I decided to add that to the RGB (5x5min each) and see what I came up with.
Processed very lightly in PS3 with levels and curves and then added as a Luminosity later to the RGB data.
With the amount of data I had, very little processing was needed. A host of very faint galaxies can be seen in an inverted image (about 15+) which pleased me.
Comments welcomed.
Allan

[multiweb]

:eyepop: That looks amazing. Mega data, mega details. Very smooth yet sharp. Great color too. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[alistairsam]

hi Allan

Looks great but can't see anything in the background. Its very dark.
I am using a calibrated IPS monitor.

Cheers
Alistair

[allan gould]

Thanks for the comments Marc, much appreciated

I decided to process it for the detail in the galaxy itself rather than the background. I suppose I could lighten that a bit but I really wanted to see the very faint spickules or threads of gas which are elevating out of the plane of the galaxy. If you look hard at the back of the centre of the galaxy and also on the RHS you can see them.
Allan

[Rex]

Incredible detail Alan. Amazing what little gems you find in the depths of the old hard drives. lol.

[ozstronomer]

Awesome image, awesome detail...who needs PI :D

Nothing beats lots of data!

Well Done

Geoff

[allan gould]

Thanks Rex - all too true

Heresy you infidel. You will be smitten. :mad2:

But I was please with the 5" and the detail that it managed to pull out.
Especially when I compared it to Gendlers APOD of the same galaxy, except he had 12hr of data with a 14" RCOS scope (see attached image).
I may try this again with the 10" GSO RC over several all nighters to see if I can really bring out those rising dust lanes.
Allan

[Amaranthus]

I prefer yours to Gendler's Allan!

[allan gould]

Thanks Barry.
Just to see how many background galaxies there are - I finally found a use for PI and plate solved and annotated it using that program.
Quite a few but not as many as the NGC300 galaxy I posted earlier

[Geoff45]

Lots of sharp detail there Allan. Nice colour too.
Geoff

[Paul Haese]

Nice looking image Allan. Only the image is a bit small. Would love to see a much larger image than the one on the site here. That sort of data needs to be shown off a bit I reckon. However, from what I can see it look very nice.

[allan gould]

Thanks Geoff, glad you liked it

Paul, I realise its a bit small but dont have a web page etc so am confined to the 200 Kb limit of IIS. Pleased you liked it.
Allan

[Octane]

Great to see you dedicate so many hours to this beautiful galaxy, Allan!

Sign up to Astrobin and you can post whatever resolution you like. It's free. :)

H

[RickS]

A very nice NGC253 and good to see you coming out of "retirement", Allan :)

Sorry I missed seeing you and all the gang at Astrofest. I'm heading home today after a month in Europe catching up with my sons and having a bit of a holiday.

Cheers,
Rick.

[allan gould]

Thanks for the heads up. Will open an account

You were missed at Astrofest, but it left photons for the rest of us.
Hope you had a great trip.
Allan

[Camelopardalis]

Beautifully detailed, well done Allan :thumbsup:

[peter_4059]

That's come up well Allan. Very smooth and great detail.

[allan gould]

Thanks for the comment Dunk - much appreciated

I think we all had a great time at Astrofest and are starting to push the established limits. Congrats on the new scope and I hope your cat is feeling better ;)

[RobF]

I'd like to swim in the full frame too please Allan if you get Astrobin or other going. SGP definitely makes it easy to reliably collect data between seasons/years, even down to the frames you meant to collect last time, as you well know. Almost allows an LRGB imager to remain (somewhat) sane.... :P :lol:

[allan gould]

When SGP is able to put your target back to within a few pixels after a south to north slew by plate solving and at the same orientation, then it's a doddle to add data from one season to the next. Great long clear nights at Astrofest this year made it one of the best ( no fog ). Will get an Astrobin account at some stage.
Allan