NGC 300 monochrome

[Placidus]

The water tank is only 2/3 full, but little or no rain predicted, just steamy cloud, so we thought we'd post what we had: 10 hours of NGC 300 in monochrome. (Trish said that since it was mono, I could do the colour balance on this one).

Original image (just 1.5MB) here (http://www.mikeberthonjones.smugmug.com/Category/Astrophotography-at-Placidus/i-rNMkRFc/0/O/NGC%20300%20mono%2010%20hrs.jpg)

We're quite pleased with the sharpness of the myriad OB regions - lotsa dots - presumably not individual stars much as we'd like them to be - tracing out the spiral arms - and with the detailed shape and form in many edge-on spirals in the background.

Toward ten o'clock and about 80% of the way out there is an edge-on spiral with an almost implausible tidal tail hanging down*. Pleased to report that it is also seen in Greg Bradley's beautiful colour shot, and is therefore not an asteroid trail, but is sadly out of frame in Ray/Shiraz's stunning version.

Aspen CG16M at -30C on 20" PlaneWave CDK on MI-750 fork. Ten off 1hr subs. Field 36 min arc.

*(Have ye seen the Jack in the green, with his long tail hanging down?)

[codemonkey]

Looking good guys! Nice, tight stars. Are you guys planning to get some colour on this one when the clouds clear?

I started on this one last night. I was tossing up between this or the helix, but given all the recent activity on the helix I figured I'd go for 300 instead. I saw Greg's great version recently, must have missed Ray's... I'll have to go dig it up.

Anyway, nice work again.

[RickS]

Sorry, Mike. It's way too magenta ;)

More seriously, great image scale with excellent details in NGC300 and also the background galaxies. Hope you have the opportunity to grab the colour soon.

Cheers,
Rick.

[gregbradley]

Nice one Mike.

You are resolving lots of the brighter stars in that galaxy. Remarkable.

Greg.

[John K]

That's magic - looks like a shot of M33 which is testament to your scope and camera!

[troypiggo]

Loving the speckles in the arms. Really add to it.

[Placidus]

Thanks, Lee. We'll definitely do some colour as soon as we can. We'd love to do more on the Helix outer chevrons too, but they're so faint they need 2x2 binning and the new moon.



Agreed.



Thanks! Next few nights look like movies and a good book.



Thanks muchly Greg.



Cheers, John! We can see why people drove to Qld for M33.



Thanks Troy. Interesting how apart from the speckles, the arms are actually extremely faint.

[Bassnut]

Excellent Mike n Trish, the sharpness really pops and very smooth noise free for such dim surface brightness

[strongmanmike]

:lol: She's right!

Fruitful 10hrs work there M&J and 1 hr subs sheesh :eyepop:... yes love that little possum looking background galaxy top left too :thumbsup:

I won't pass comment on the "dottyness" cause NGC300 does have that sort'a look :lol: but there are no worms at least :D

Great mega scope stuff again guys :thumbsup:

Mike

[topheart]

What a sparkler!!

Congrats!!

Well done!

Tim

[astronobob]

Super capture ! Remarkably smooth for only 10 x 1hr long subs, Top processing there then too :cool2: _ _ :cool2:

[alpal]

Hi Mike & Trish,
That's superb.
I tried a test shot tonight & with an 10" f4 & I only picked up
the central region with a 5 minute L subframe at 1x1.
It's a deceptively difficult beast.

cheers
Allan

[Paul Haese]

Ahh long subs. :thumbsup: I think you could stretch the data just a bit more to bring out those little galaxies in the back ground. There are so many of the tiny little suckers, it would be easy to mistaken those for stars. The main star of the show looks good and I suspect that another 5-10 hours are going to help bring out those faint dust lanes near the core.

I am looking forward to seeing the final result.

[Placidus]

Thanks, Fred. As Paul says, it would benefit from much more exposure.



Cheers, Mike! We can't wait to get both colour and much more luminance on it. Think it will be worth the effort.



Thanks, Tim.



Thanks Bob.



Hi, Allan. As you say, apart from the star-forming regions, the spiral arms are most elusive.



Thanks, Paul. We agree with you on all counts. We managed to stretch it another x3 and nothing really terrible happened, but as you say, it desperately deserves a true hammering, with lots of lum, to try to get the really faint stuff. We can't wait. Should be worth the effort.

Best,
Mike and Trish

[RobF]

Wow, a very striking lum image. Echo what others have said - would love to see a final colour rendition on this one!

[Somnium]

looking really nice !

[DJT]

Lovely image, MnT. Hoping you get the skies you need for the HaRGB as its going to be a belter I am sure.

:thumbsup:

[Placidus]

Thanks, Rob. Last night was so tempting: stars and dark sky, but on close inspection no milky way, no Magellanic clouds. Treachery.



Thanks, Aidan.



Thank you David!

[andyc]

That is wonderfully sharp and deep. I've just got myself a decent-looking NGC300, but I might have to wait until people have forgotten about yours and the other great renditions on here, else it'll look awful shabby. Thanks for the views!

[codemonkey]

Post it up anyway, andy, I posted mine... hell, if I only posted when no one else had just posted a better one, I'd never post at all.

[Placidus]

Aye, agreed! Post on! And thanks!
Mike

[AlexN]

An almost unreal view there M+T.

Truly remarkable data thus far .. It's funny I'm only just jumping back into astrophotography after a 5 year break. In 2008-2010 there were some really beautiful images being produced but I am absolutely amazed at what people are producing these days.

This image is far more than I ever would have thought possible from ground based telescopes 5 or 6 years ago.

Bravo indeed. Waiting impatiently for colour.

[Placidus]

Thanks so much, Alex, and welcome back. Looking forward to seeing your work.

We suspect that your comments are a reflection on improved equipment (specially bigger, quieter, higher efficiency cameras with deeper wells), to some extent improved software techniques like wavelet filtering, but perhaps most importantly, the increased shared knowledge about what to do to make a good image that forums like this have produced. :) A good time to be alive.

Mike and Trish

[Shiraz]

just plain amazing detail for something so far away - as you say, a good time to be alive. :thumbsup::thumbsup:

[Placidus]

Thanks muchly, Ray.

Optimistic and hoping for colour, we managed to squeeze off an hour each of red, green, and blue last night under excellent seeing before the storm came. It was nice standing at the house (350 metres away) with binoculars and a 6W Cree LED super-torch watching the dome roof close itself at midnight (under scripted control) well before the first fat drops fell. Sadly, some vanguard cloud meant guiding was lost during the blue, so no colour yet.

[strongmanmike]

:lol: love it :thumbsup:

BTW how do you get to and from the observatory? Is there a shuttle service? :P 350m is just far enough to cause some serious eye rolling or forehead slapping, should you forget to take something out with you :lol:

Mike

[Placidus]

There is a shuttle service. It's not just the 350m horizontally, it's the 30 meters vertically, which is too much for a seniors card holder to lug petrol for the generator. So it's the 4WD Subaru Outback :) Then it's "You brought the keys, didn't you, Angel?"

[AlexN]

:) Hahaha