Grus Quartet

[furgle]

The Grus-Quartet consists of four large spiral galaxies which are so close to each other that they are interacting.

**Image:**

* 75x 450s Luminance bin2x2
* 18x 450s Red bin2x2
* 18x 450s Green bin2x2
* 18x 450s Blue bin2x2

Total exposure 16 hours 8 minutes.

**Hardware:**

* Skywatcher Black Diamond ED120
* SkyWatcher EQ8 Pro Mount
* QSI 683-ws8 Camera @ -15°C
* Astronomik Typ2 LRGB filters
* Starlight Xpress Lodestar X2 Autoguider
* Innovations Foresight On Axis Guider
* Starlight Instruments Focus Boss II

**Location:**

* Orange zone in Brisbane, Australia. (Bortle 7)
* Imaged over 3 nights, new moon.

**Software:**

* Planning & camera alignment with Aladin 9
* Captured with AstroArt 6
* Guiding with PHD2 + PHD_Dither
* FocusLock live focusing
* CCDInspector: Image analysis & rejection
* CCDStack 2+: Calibrate, align, stack, deconvolution, remove gradients, combine RGB.
* Photoshop CC: Shadows/highlights, combine L+RGB, noise reduction, curves, adjust colour balance, saturation, crop.

Higher resolution here: http://adam.lundie.com.au/astrophotography/Grus_Quartet/Grus_Quartet_20170820.html

[atalas]

Always enjoy seeing this group imaged.....good work Adam :thumbsup:

[Placidus]

Nicely done, Adam. NGC 7552 came out especially well. Makes us want to have a go at just that one.

[cometcatcher]

Lovely image. I'm collecting data on this one also but only the 3 in the tight group.

[gregbradley]

Nice one Adam. How do you find the focus lock autofocus system?

Greg.

[furgle]

Worth every dollar. I'm only just finding that out now with a new fast newt that doesn't have room for an on axis guider in the imaging train.

[gregbradley]

But you could use the Optec Lacerta system which is a lens that fits on the end of a Lodestar guider and runs similar software.

http://optecinc.com/astronomy/catalog/focuslock/19860.htm

I should really get this for my Honders. I am using temp compensation which seems quite good but not perfect and I am losing some resolution because of it.

Greg.

[furgle]

Thanks. I had no idea that existed. I'm ordering one tomorrow.

[billdan]

Very nice Adam, colours in the galaxies look great. As well as Kevin, I also started collecting data on this group, been waiting for the Ekka winds to disappear.

Cheers
Bill

[willik]

Very well taken Adam nice image good detail.
Martin

[topheart]

Great capture!
Cheers,
Tim

[DJT]

Nice one Adam ,well done!