Ngc247

[Paul Haese]

It's been a few months since posting an image. Lots of cloud has stalled a number of projects. Some now have to wait until the coming apparition to be completed. This image is from the AG12 #2. I am now using an SBIG Aluma 694 with this scope. It still needs some tweaking to get things right but overall it is capable of producing an image now. It needs a lot more data but I have run out of time on it for this year and well I needed to process an image.

This image is of NGC247 which is located in the constellation of Cetus. It is a well known interesting looking galaxy and accompanied by several nice looking galaxies in the background. Some are quite distance and well red shifted. I counted quite a few of those. Feel free to have a count of the red shifted galaxies alone.

One thing I have noted though is that the filters or camera does not handle flares from stars just outside of the field of view all that well. I found that I was getting an annoying arc on the images. I'll let you find it, I have tried to disguise it but I am sure it can still be seen. I need to find the source of the flare though.

Click here (http://paulhaese.net/NGC247.html) for large image.

Image contains just under 8 hours of data, luminance which was only 135 minutes, Ha was 100 minutes and the rest shared by RGB.

[jwoody]

A great image Paul with good colours.
Top shelf

[Placidus]

Exquisite Paul. Beautifully done.

[GUS.K]

Great image Paul, nice catch of four Burbidge's chain galaxies as well.

[CoolhandJo]

Really nice colours and processing. Looks amazing. :thumbsup:

[Ryderscope]

Fantastic Paul, great detail and colours and lots of interesting background galaxies :thumbsup:

[Peter Ward]

Very tidy effort Paul.

For what it's worth, the arcs/flaring from the lower right is almost certainly a stray reflection from the the telescope's baffle or focuser. The radius looks way too large to have bounced from the camera/filters.

[gregbradley]

Very nice Paul and I totally understand how its been a bad period for imaging. Nice to get a new image.

Great colour. Stars though look squarish and a bit flared. Watch the 695 sensor. Full well is not its strong point. I found using shorter subexposures was a good strategy to get tighter stars. Like 5 minutes instead of 10.

Flare would be from the primary mirror baffle tube. It would need a small baffle attached to the outside of that primary baffle tube to widen it slightly.

Greg.

[Paul Haese]

Thanks guys for the comments.



I'll take a look but all my adapters are painted matt black, the focuser is an Atlas on that scope. It did not appear with the STXL when I was using it on that scope. So I doubt that this is further inside the scope. It might be inside the corrector though. More teething to be resolved.





Thanks for your comments Greg. This image is only produced with 5 minute subs on the LRGB and 10 minutes on the Ha. Ever since I have been using these fast scopes I have been doing short subs. I can't see any square stars myself. Whilst not perfectly round, I don't believe they look square. There are some odd shapes being produced by scope however. Perhaps still an element of tilt or astigmatism.

The primary has a mask over it. That cannot therefore be the cause of a flare. Further this is a Newtonian, not a catadioptric telescope. It might be from the secondary though with some stray light contacting the edge, though last time I had it out I did use a felt tip marker to paint that edge and remove any possible flares that might occur.

[Andy01]

Nice image Paul, certainly a quality production. :thumbsup:
Not by any means an attractive target to my eye, but the little galaxies in the background are a treat to view.:)

[Bart]

Very nice image, Paul. Lovely colours, nice background galaxies.

[JA]

That's a lovely image Paul :thumbsup:
I just checked the Clayton Bay location you mentioned: Wow, it's nice and dark!

Best
JA

[TrevorW]

Nice effort Paul, weathers been ****e here too :)

[DaveNZ]

Nice image Paul. Good detail. Good luck with you new camera.

[marc4darkskies]

Very nicely done Paul! :thumbsup: