Ngc253

[peter_4059]

Here's my latest offering - NGC253 from Astrofest. I've spent the last few weeks processing this, starting from scratch a number of times in an attempt to learn how to use PixInsight properly. I feel like I've made some progress this weekend. This image is 2.5 hours worth of LRGB using my SN10 and QSI683 on the EQ6.

Comments and processing tips always welcome

Here's the link to the hi-res version
http://astrob.in/202350/C/

Thanks for looking.

[Slawomir]

Wow, a definite improvement over the original version IMO. Nice star colours giving them a natural balanced appearance and the galaxy came to live with more vivid colours and details, well done Peter :thumbsup:

[Atmos]

The colours are a lot better in this one than the original, looking pretty good now :)

[RobF]

Now you're talking! That's superior in every way Peter. Well worth the effort, and showing what the beast is capable of.

The halo is coming out, love the colours - and even better than the dust detail is the red ha areas showing. Hopefully you feel rewarded for all the time working on the repro. :jump2:

[RickS]

Looks good, Peter!

[h0ughy]

always in awe of your skills Peter. that work is worth moonburn. so if you add a whole lot more data that would bring out all the halo?

[Rex]

Great job peter, all that hard work is definitely paying off.

[strongmanmike]

That's really good Peter, I like the nice colours and the elusive extended halo can be made out in this one, well done :thumbsup:

Mike

[Somnium]

Beautiful , a great treatment to a wonderful target

[peter_4059]

Thanks Slawomir. I found it helped to have a reference image to compare the colour to. Luckily Astrobin is great at sorting images by object so it's easy to find a few candidates to use for comparison.


Thanks Colin


Cheers Rob. It was definitely worth spending some time working out what PI can do. Hopefully it won't take me as long to process the next one. I've started on an M33 repro.


Thanks for the help getting started with PI Rick.


Not sure Dave. I might give a longer exposure a try in the future.



Thanks Rex. I feel like I'm making a bit of progress now.


Thanks Mike. I'm finding it a fine line in PI as most things require masks and it is easy to get the extent of the mask wrong with faint detail and remove it accidently.



Cheers Aidan

[Placidus]

Superb! Colour balance is very close to right, a prerequisite for the strong saturation and contrast that you've used. Shows the core versus spiral arms colour difference beautifully. To our delight, we can see clearly the faint perpendicular dust lanes that are famously blown away from this beast as galactic fountains - excellent processing there. We enjoyed hunting around.

Best,
Mike and Trish

[Octane]

Echoing Mike and Trish's comments above, this is superb. :)

H

[ozstronomer]

Great image Peter, plenty of detail.

Well done

Geoff

[batema]

That's a rippa. Well done Peter. Very nice and great star colours as well.

[marc4darkskies]

Great colour and some pretty good detail there Peter! Nice going! :thumbsup:

[multiweb]

:prey2: One for the cool wall. :thumbsup:

[marco]

Excellent one Peter, color balance and is especially captivating, vibrant and pleasant :thumbsup:

Clear skies
Marco

[Stevec35]

You've got a winner there Peter! A top shot.

Steve

[Paul Haese]

I like the colour and brightness of this image. I am currently collecting data on this myself and had not made my preliminary image as bright as this. You image give the island universe feel which I like. I think maybe you could do some more sharpening to enhance the detail a little more. Smooth and nice looking image overall.

[topheart]

Good one!

Thanks,
Tim