Spiral Galaxy NGC300 CDK meets RHA 15 hours+

[gregbradley]

I've always liked this galaxy. Its very photogenic and quite soft looking for a galaxy with fluffy star clouds and not a lot of dust that is visible.

I've done this before with the CDK17 and I may combine the data for a deeper image but its a fairly bright galaxy and the seeing wasn't bad and the AP scope was resolving detail very well.

7 hours 10 minutes Ha LRGB image. From my home observatory. Mostly taken last night.

http://www.pbase.com/image/161485177/large regular size

http://www.pbase.com/image/161485177/original larger size

Greg.

[Somnium]

I Love what you have done with the ha regions . Great stuff

[gregbradley]

Thanks Aidan. I find it amazing that we can capture detail like that plus single bright stars from a far away galaxy with amateur equipment.

Greg.

[Somnium]

So am I, capturing detail in galaxies is unbelievable when you think about the scales and distances . I just need to get my gear to work

[RickS]

A nice NGC300, Greg! It reminds me a lot of M33, which I'm processing at present.

Have you tried drizzle integration with that set up? Your image scale must be around 0.8 arcsec/pixel so I guess you'd need better than average seeing to make it worthwhile.

Cheers,
Rick.

[Placidus]

Sharp, and as others have mentioned, HII regions showing nicely. It would be great to see if the combo with the CDK17 data worked.

[Shiraz]

Fine image Greg. The Ha adds a real boost to the impact.

[gregbradley]

Yes, we are part mechanic, part IT expert, part artist!



Its very similar to M33. I haven't tried drizzle yet. That gives a gain in oversampled data right? I am probably more a little undersampled and on some nights spot on. 1 arc sec/pixel would be more comfortable and that would be a 6 micron pixel.



I'll do a combine. I intend to combine RHA and CDK data once my 2nd filter wheel is repaired.



Thanks Ray. It does add a punch.

Greg

[strongmanmike]

Not bad Greg and I too like the robust looking HII regions :) It's a deceptively faint bustardo I know, so some more exposure from a dark site would likely assist. Hopefully you don't mind me commenting though..the smoothing looks uneven across the frame and the stars, especially the bright ones, look kinda weird, sorta butchered (sorry :sadeyes:) Did you do anything to'em in the processing? :question:

Mike

[RickS]

You want your image scale to be around a third of the seeing so it's not going to help you except on really good nights.

Drizzle works well at SRO with 1 arcsec seeing and a 2 arcsec/picxel image scale! Also helps with the AP140 and U16M even with average seeing in SE Qld.

Cheers,
Rick.

[Paul Haese]

The galaxy itself looks ok to me. The Ha regions stand out really well. However, I am not really sure about your stars, both the smaller ones and the brighter ones.

[gregbradley]

I've had this happen often. I forget to protect the stars with a star mask. Some steps in my processing must push the stars too hard and the bright ones already have a halo around them that gets pushed too hard.

I'll redo it and use star masks and add some more data as well. I was happy with the luminance but more is merrier. I really like this galaxy so I'll add some. This run of clear weather is helping.



I will definitely put that on the things to be done list. Is there a PI tutorial covering how to use the drizzle function?



Yes the stars on reviewing the image have taken some damage. I'll fix it with more data and some reprocess.

Greg.

[strongmanmike]

Good boy :thumbsup:

[gregbradley]

Here we go and this image to me validates the idea of combining the AP RHA data and the CDK17 They blend together well. The AP used the small SX Trius 694 12mm x 10mm sensor and the CDK the Proline 16803 camera with 36.4m square sensor.

This is a total of 15 hours and 20 minutes and taken from my home observatory. PME and AP1600 mounts. The CDK data is from about 3 years ago.

http://www.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/161485177/large regular

http://www.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/161485177/original large


Greg.

[AlexN]

Looks different to what I got at 300mm focal length last night with 1hr exposure.

[AlexN]

Ps, outstanding

[codemonkey]

Very nice, Greg! You've inspired me to have a crack at this one tonight.

[gregbradley]

Thanks Alex. I am very happy with this and once my 2nd filter wheel is repaired this will be my routine action, imaging the same object



Thanks very much for that. I am glad it had that effect.

Greg.

[Placidus]

That worked brilliantly!

The stars look sharp and round, and the colour is rich and good, especially the warm tones in the centre and in the galaxy clusters toward bottom left.

[gregbradley]

Thanks for that. As you know the stars are more robust from the 16803 with its 100,000 electron wells. That helps a lot as I often find the stars are easy to damage with the small well cameras.

Greg.

[rustigsmed]

looks good to me Greg, loving the HII regions!

[gregbradley]

Thanks Russell.

The Ha areas are quite interesting, I agree. The CDK image picks up the Ha areas without even doing a Ha filtered run. The RHA needs the Ha run to show them.

Greg.

[strongmanmike]

Some nice rich colours in there Greg and the stars look better now with the CDK data added. Doing hybrid images is fun huh? :thumbsup:...and you certainly have two formidably amazing setups now too :eyepop:

Mike
Not jealous at all of Greg's equipment :mad2: :P

[RickS]

A nice improvement, Greg, and it looks even more like M33 now :)

[gregbradley]

Cheers Mike. Yes I want to do dual imaging of targets to really get some deep data quickly. My filter wheel is off to FLI for repairs today so once its back I'll be in business.



Thanks Rick. Does the colour look ok? I did a monitor calibration this morning and it made my monitor make things look more red or brownish background and I don't trust the callibration.

Greg.

[topheart]

Good work Greg!

The combo is working out well it would seem.

How do you go about combining the data from the two scopes??

Cheers,
Tim

[gregbradley]

Thanks Tim.

I like the sensitivity and cleanliness of the Sony chip. I like the full well depth and robustness of the stars from the 16803. So they complement each others strengths there.

I simply register and then stack them together using CCDstack. It works without a hitch.

Greg.

[topheart]

Thanks Greg!!
All the best!
Tim

[graham.hobart]

Another cracker Greg- to me the Ha looks like fizzy fireworks on a Catherine wheel. Very cool
cheers
Graham

[gregbradley]

Thanks Graham. I am looking forward to do more combo images with these 2 setups. Plus I have quite a library of good data from the last several years already with the CDK.

Greg.

[E_ri_k]

Looks great Greg:thumbsup: The Ha regions really make it pop.
Erik

[gregbradley]

Cheers Erik.

Greg.

[Slawomir]

Fantastic image Greg. Looks to me you have created a very capable and sophisticated and unique imaging apparatus :thumbsup:

[gregbradley]

Thanks Slawomir. I am looking forward to utilising it to the max.

Greg.

[Stevec35]

Pretty good looking NGC300 there Greg. Nice job with the Ha regions.

Cheers

Steve

[gregbradley]

Thanks Steve. The Sony sensors are very sensitive in narrowband. They pick a lot quite quickly.

Greg.