NGC 300 - first baby steps into Galaxy imaging

[Andy01]

Like the title suggests, here is my first attempt at a galaxy.

Hard to believe that it's taken almost a year to get my RC8 going correctly, but it now has a motorized Moonlite focuser, the correct spacers for the camera, a second counterweight on the dovetail for balance, the dew heater installed on the secondary and most importantly it's finally collimated! :)

So after all that - the planets aligned with no family duties, my mate's property in the country being available, on a clear night, without too much moon etc. to give this thing a proper hit out.

This is just 2.5 hrs of LUM (10min subs) and an hour of each RG&B (5min subs) from the dark site, with a further 4 hrs of Ha added from home.

Needs another night's data to clear up the noise, smooth it out and get some detail going - as I've probably pushed what little data I have pretty hard :D

Would welcome any suggestions for tutorials etc. as my LRGB processing need work! :D

Bigger one is HERE (https://www.astrobin.com/367008/D/) - don't look to closely! lol :lol:

[RickS]

A great start, Andy, but as you suggest it looks like more data is needed :) I can't help with a workflow unless you become a cult member :lol:

Cheers,
Rick.

[multiweb]

Good details. Looks a little purple in the center. I reckon that's meant to be yellowish instead. (green also works) :thumbsup:

[alpal]

Hi Andy,
that's 10 times better than I ever did.
You're going well.


cheers
Allan

[silv]

On Astrobin, Andy uploaded the 1st version, too, which is yellow in the center. (right hand column where it says "Revisions"). But that 1st processing has a lot less spiral arms detail.

[strongmanmike]

Congrats on your first galaxy shot Andy :thumbsup:

Overall not bad mate, some neatening up required, bit less magenta in the core region and the stars look a little blobby and flarey with perhaps some miss registration but I am sure all this will improve in due course.

Welcome to real imaging :thumbsup:

Mike

[Andy01]

LOL, cheers Rick - not planning to cross over to the dark side anytime soon, I'm to used to using PS. :D



Thanks Marc, yes I see what you mean about the colour - makes cosmic sense too as it's likely that older yellow stars are located in the middle of the galaxy.



Nice of you to say so Allan, cheers mate :)



Thanks Silv, yes that first process was pretty quick & dirty - I spent much more time on round two. Still learning LRGB processing :thumbsup:



Cheers Mike, agreed about the colour and in my next process I'll use Registar for better and more accurate registration than the Nebulosity workaround I used here.

Believe it or not, I'm still working on fine tuning the best methods for basic stretching of the stacked L, R, G & B images. If I can get that sorted, I reckon that's half the job done!

Thanks for all you feedback folks! :thumbsup:

[Placidus]

That's an amazingly good first galaxy Andy.

I had a go on a copy trying to get the colour right (yellow centre, blue dots in the spiral arms, red for the HII regions), but it didn't want to. That suggests that the problem crept in earlier in processing, and it isn't just a final tweak.

Well done!

Mike

[willik]

HI Andy
Very nice image of the NGC300 not a easy image to take the spiral arms are hard to get detail out but still it is a very nice image :thumbsup:
Martin

[codemonkey]

Ha. You picked a good first target there Andy; NGC 300 is pretty dim, certainly not an easy one. Solid effort... I can't even imagine what my first galaxy image would have been like had I tried NGC 300.

I notice there's some banding on the top of the frame... if you had PixInsight I'd suggest trying the canon banding removal script... not sure what you can do about it with PS.

[Andy01]

Cheers Mike - I suspect the core colour problem lies with my inexperience with basic stretching of the RG&B - not too sure exactly what I'm aiming for there, but I'm learning!



Thanks Martin - it's a very beautiful target - hopefully next time round I can do it justice!



Cheers Lee - Dim but pretty - worth persevering with I reckon - will see how I go next time out to the dark site. That banding is wierd though, it's in all the subs - might have to redo the flats & darks to see if it's something that has crept in there. :question:

[gregbradley]

Nice job Andy. A great first galaxy image.

Greg.

[Ross G]

A great looking first time galaxy photo Andy.


Looking forward to more.


Good luck.
Ross.

[Andy01]

cheers Greg & Ross, thanks again too Mike.

I've attempted to re-align the stars in this newly re-processed version. (https://www.astrobin.com/367008/E/)

Cheers

Andy