M33

[atalas]

Hi All
This shot was taken from Coonabarabran which is 5 hours NorthWest of Sydney and a very dark site.
Exposures were 10min x 12 shot with a SXV-H9C through the ZS 66SD/.8 reducer guided on a G11 mount through a ZS110.

I used AA3 to capture, align&combine and CS2 for post processing where I used levels and curves to stretch and some Highpass layer masks for sharpening and gaussian blur for smoothing.

The seeing was very average but the transparency seemed very good on this night so I guess we can't always wait till conditions are perfect or we would never get a shot in.

This galaxy is very low on the horizan for us down here but It's one I've been wanting to shoot for a while now.

I found It vary difficult to process,It needs much more exposure time and I think that I should of used longer subs,but anyway I'll look to add to It in the future.
Image can be found at my Web site www.atalas.net in Most Recent folder.

I hope you all enjoy

[Dennis]

Hi Louie

Yes - this is one tough object, even for CCD’s. Still, you've managed to capture and reveal a lot of data and detail in the arms of the galaxy, not an easy job. Quite an incredible image for a 66mm objective!

Cheers

Dennis

[Rodstar]

Always a pleasure to visit your website, Louie! Yet another cracker! Thanks for sharing another high quality image. I must head up to Coona some time soon to enjoy truly dark sky conditions.

[iceman]

Agree with Rod and Dennis, nice image Louie and your website is still looking lovely.

Looks/sounds like a very tough object. I've never seen it visually but want to one day.

agree with Rod, a trip to Coona next year sounds like a good idea.

[Striker]

Nice image Louie,

Some nice exposure time as well.

[atalas]

Dennis,Rod,Mike and Tony,thanks for the reply guy's! Coona is a great place to visit that's for sure,you'll love your time there and the sky there.

Tony,I decided not to use an IR block filter on this shot to get better sensativity but I feel that not using one gave me a much harder job with colour balancing with such a low altitude object...my recamendation? always use one If you don't want headaches!

Dennis,I guess I should remember that It's only a 2.5" scope and not expect the resolution,but for some reason I keep expecting It and am always dissapointed...time for a bigger chip me think !

[Ric]

Hi Louie, thats a great image with a lot of detail, well captured.

cheers

[ving]

heap of detail there. good one louie! :)

[atalas]

Thanks for the reply Ric and David.