NGC4038/4039 Antennae Galaxies

[PRejto]

My longest integration time yet from my light polluted property in North Curl Curl between April 5 -May 30, 2016

TEC180 + TAK TOA-67 flattener/TEC140 on Paramount MEII/TSX

Luminance 135 x 10 min = 22.5 hours Moravian G-2-8300/TEC180/Astronomik CLS/ONAG/Sharplock Focus .88 arc-sec resolution

RGB Trius H694/Astronomik RGB "Deep Sky filters"

RED: 89 x5 min = 7.41 hours
Green: 65 x 5 min = 5.41 hours
Blue: 91 x 5 min = 7.58 hours

TotaL: 42.9 hours

Full size here: http://www.pbase.com/image/163491407

Thanks for looking! Comments welcome of course.

[Somnium]

really nice effort Peter, you have to be pleased with that. i absolutely love this target, i plan on doing it properly next year.

[batema]

Very nice indeed. Nice scopes....

[Spookyer]

WOW:eyepop:

Brett

[gregbradley]

That's a stunner Peter. Your best image to date and a real winner. Well done on working out a processing routine to tame the light pollution gradients.

Greg.

[Atmos]

Thats very nice Peter! Looks like the new blue filter is is working well for you :)

[Placidus]

Gorgeous! Congratulations! :thumbsup::thumbsup:

[RickS]

Nice result, Peter!

[marc4darkskies]

Excellent result Peter!

[Ross G]

Amazing photo Peter.

Beautiful colours.

Deep, smooth detail.

So sharp.

Ross.

[Peter Ward]

Nice to see a kindred urban imager pushing through Sydney's sky glow with panache.

Lovely star colour variation, beautifully captured and processed...well done :thumbsup:

[multiweb]

Great details and colours on an inky black background. What's not to like? Top shot. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[Retrograde]

That's awesome Peter - even more so given the location it was taken from :eyepop:

[PRejto]

I want to thank everybody together for the generous and kind comments!

Finally I think I've found a technique to deal with my extreme gradients right at the beginning of processing. Up until now I could only partially fix the issue and it would plague me right until the end. That plus collecting a ton of data has made a really big difference.

Thanks all,

Peter

[strongmanmike]

Yes, a ton of data indeed :eyepop:...for a light polluted site, it came together quite nicely Peter :thumbsup:

..you still cursing me? :scared3:

Mike

[Paul Haese]

The detail in the main galaxy is very good and the colouring seems quite natural to me.

The data collection has paid off, always good to gather lots of data.

A minor point. You should crop the image as there is a registration bar down the left side of the image.

[PRejto]

Nope!!!! Whilst it is 42 hours of light I did it in about 23 hrs! So, good stuff when everything decides to play nice together!

Peter



Oh, thanks a lot for that Paul. I went back and looked in photoshop. It's there no doubt but much fainter than the jpg image I uploaded to Pbase. I think the compression must bring it out. Anyway, good advice noted! Thanks.

Peter

[strongmanmike]

Phew, good to hear :innocent:...just saw it over at Starship Asterisk too, looks good :thumbsup:

Hopefully I will have a dual system operating by years end but not specifically planning to have the two systems imaging at the same time :question:..more just to provide me with two options - wide or narrow depending on the target I wish to hammer :)

Mike

[PRejto]

That's a nice plan Mike. The biggest isssue that I so far can't solve is that of differential flex between the 2 scopes. I can pretty much go 5 min and hardly see an issue. But, longer becomes problematic. I'm now experimenting with an AO on scope #2 while guiding through scope 1. The idea is that the AO should remove any DF. But, so far I can't find a working method and what was already complicated is now hopelessly complicated. And this is with two refractors. I think mirrored scopes would be raher hopeless unless the AO idea could be implemented. Good luck with your setup!

Peter