M104 the Sombrero Galaxy Now in colour

[gregbradley]

A favourite. Some excellent seeing and the small pixel size of the Microline 16 gave some good detail.

I have the full data but for now here is the luminance image. Make sure you see the large image.

www.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/167285389/original large size

www.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/167285389/large regular size.

CDK17, FLI Microline 16200, AP1600 mount.

Now in colour:

http://www.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/167304557/large regular size


http://www.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/167304557/original large size


Greg.

[RickS]

Great detail in the dust lane, Greg!

[codemonkey]

+1 Great detail there Greg. I'm too lazy to look it up and since you likely already know, what's your imaging scale in terms of "/px ?

[Peter Ward]

A great result. :thumbsup:

[Stevec35]

That's a very nice sombrero Greg!

Cheers

Steve

[gregbradley]

Cheers Rick. Good seeing helped a lot.



.42 arc seconds per pixel so it really needs good seeing to work.



Thanks Peter. Your stellar M104 was uppermost in my mind when when I wasntaking this shot.

Greg.

[Geoff45]

Great work Greg. It's very easy to overblow the centre in an attempt to show the outer regions but you've processed it nicely. It also looks very visual. I remember looking at this with a 25" scope on a night of good seeing. It looked pretty much like your image although not as much detail in the dust lane

[Kunama]

Nice image Greg, I saw it in Allan's 32" Dob and it looked just like your photo.

[gregbradley]

Sounds great. I'll have to get back into some visual observing. Its very rewarding.



Thank you. That must have been quite a treat.

Greg.

[alpal]

Nice pic Greg,
it's not easy to get detail in that dust lane on
such a tiny dim target.
I look forward to the colour version.

cheers
Allan

[astroron]

Nice image there Greg:)
You have also scored quite a few of it's globular Clusters. :thumbsup:

[Ryderscope]

Lovely. Good detail and nice processing.

[topheart]

Nice one Greg!!
Cheers,
Tim

[Atmos]

Such a lovely image Greg. Many images I’ve seen of this usually show the dust lanes as a dust bar so Harding that extra contrast is lovely to see.

[Placidus]

That's Premier Cru, Greg. The sharpness is remarkable.

[Stevec35]

Looking good Greg. The colour should be spectacular.

Steve

[markas]

Terrific image - I'd love to see the full colour version when it arrives!

Mark

[strongmanmike]

Some nice details there Greg :thumbsup: I am going to the US in May to the Texas Star Party with a few astro mates and as part of our trip we have booked a whole night observing on the Hooker 100" scope at Mt Wilson (for just four of us!!)...and even given its slightly southern declination, M104 will be nicely placed, so I can't wait to see what it looks like through a 2.5m telescope under (hopefully) some good seeing that Mt Wilson can get :D

Mike

[Joshua Bunn]

Some great resolution Greg, the colour will be awesome.



What a treat!! :eyepop:

[gregbradley]

Thanks Allan. I am hoping the colour brings out a bit more.




Yes I noticed that. There are quite a few.



Thanks for that.



Cheers Tim. It must be coming up to the dry season in Cairns?



It was a great night of seeing, several nights really. It makes all the difference at that image scale.



Thanks Mike. Hopefully the Microline 16 and the CDK 17 perform this well most of the time.





Thanks Mark, it shouldn't be long.



Wow, what an awesome trip. Definitely write up a post about it. Sounds like a dream trip.



Thanks Josh.

Greg

[Octane]

Looks very promising so far, Greg. Looking forward to the final rendition!

H

[Paul Haese]

Nice resolution Greg. Looking forward to the colour version.

[topheart]

Yes indeed!! The cyclones have all been and gone....the last week has been clear at Savannah Skies every night all night...so, yes I declare our imaging season open now until December!

I hope you have clear skies down there!
Cheers,
Tim

[gregbradley]

Thanks Humi.



Cheers Paul.



let the imaging begin!

Greg.

[multiweb]

Nice one Greg. Nailed everything. :thumbsup:

[tornado33]

Always great imaging of M104 to show its globulars

[atalas]

Sorry Greg...thought I responded to this fantastic shot:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup: look forward to seeing colour added!

[willik]

That turned out so good Greg the detail what more do you want.
Martin

[gregbradley]

Cheers Marc. I was happy to see such sharp data. It was excellent seeing.



Thanks. Yes and there a lot of them.



Cheers Louie. Some images turn out better than others.



Thanks Martin. I hope to get out a colour version shortly.

Greg.

[gregbradley]

Now in colour:

http://www.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/167304557/large regular size


http://www.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/167304557/original large size


Greg.

[strongmanmike]

Not bad Greg but you have lost the resolution from the Lum a bit :sad: The Lum looks great. Always challenging to preserve detail when constructing the colour version, I know, but I recon it'd be worth a retry :thumbsup:.

Mike

[Peter Ward]

Colours look a little muted which may be due the colour data being a little thin?

Waiting for mother nature to give consistently deliver good seeing for the RGB sets can be a pain...Lord knows... we've all been there :)

Getting there Greg. It will be a cracker :thumbsup:

[Stevec35]

Looks pretty good Greg although the colour doesn't match the quality of the luminance. I'm currently doing this one myself but so far only have luminance.

Cheers

Steve

[gregbradley]

Yes it did lose some there. I have more data I can play with so a 2nd version is on the cards.



Yes I struggled there. A 2nd version may be in order.



Thanks Steve. Yes I agree.

Greg.

[LewisM]

Nice Bellerophon Greg!

(Reference to Forbidden Planet for the non-Sci-fi classicists)

[marc4darkskies]

A great result Greg! Look forward to the colour!

PS: Aaah, spoke too soon, I see the colour version but I'm afraid you've lost something in translation. Try blurring the colour, adding vibrance and sat, and then layering it as a colour layer on top of the luminance. Colour data shouldn't add noise or affect the detail in the image at all.

[gregbradley]

I used Marcus's advice and it came out a lot better. Also used PI to align the colour and the luminance instead of manually in Photoshop. Added the extra colour data I had captured so this is more like an hour per RGB now.

Much happier with the result:

http://www.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/167304557/large regular size

http://www.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/167304557/original large size

Thanks Marcus.

Greg.227192

[gregbradley]

I fixed the colour so now the detail is there but in colour.

Greg.

[Stevec35]

Yep - I think you nailed it this time Greg

Steve

[Peter Ward]

Getting there...the mottled sky background is somewhat distracting.

That said, colour much improved :thumbsup:

[strongmanmike]

Yes, looks better Greg :thumbsup:

Mike

[gregbradley]

Thanks Steve.




Yes that is a problem. Not sure how that came to be. Probably early on or simply not enough exposure time.



Thanks Mike.

Greg.

[gregbradley]

Redid it from scratch. I think the mottled background came from using flatten background tool in CCDstack.

Anyway, its fixed.


http://www.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/167304557/large regular size

http://www.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/167304557/original large size

Greg.

[gregbradley]

Here's an alternate processing approach:


http://www.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/167394036/large


Greg.

[RickS]

I like them both, Greg. Perhaps a slight preference to the latest.

[atalas]

Looks great to me Greg :thumbsup:

[gregbradley]

Thanks Rick. Yes I prefer the latest as well as it regained some detail in the colour.



Thanks Louie. I appreciate your view.

Greg.

[topheart]

Hi Greg,
Great work!
Cheers,
Tim

[gregbradley]

Thanks Tim.

I redid it from scratch and that helped. Image processing can be a very time consuming thing sometimes.

Greg.

[SimmoW]

Congrats on a very clear image Greg! Superb

[John K]

Very nice Greg! Like the molting effect on the dust lanes.

John K.

[marc4darkskies]

Yes, much improved Greg, well done! :thumbsup: Processing IS very time consuming!! I've been known to take days to get an image just right, but I've consistently demonstrated to myself that the time taken is inversely proportional to the amount of data!

[gregbradley]

Thanks Simmon. It was very clear and good seeing at the time.



Thanks John. Its the best one I've been able to take so far.



Thanks Marcus and thanks for your advice which I applied. I had been doing LRGB combines in CCDstack and it can be a bit hit and miss.
That's true not enough data is most of our problems with images.

Greg.

[gregbradley]

I took some more subexposures last weekend for this one.

I've reprocessed it from scratch to incorporate the extra data (about 3 hours worth).

http://www.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/167468114/large

Greg.

[topheart]

HI Greg,
Awesome!
I like your processing especially of the dust lanes ....the galaxy has a lovely 3D feel now.

Fantastic!
Cheers,
Tim

[gregbradley]

Thanks Tim. A lot of work as usual. I wish these images would just fall out of the computer easily. Unfortunately they often don't.

Yes I like the image viewed close up as you can see the ring quite clearly.


Greg.