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AnakChan
07-09-2021, 01:13 AM
Over Father's Day weekend, I joined my local astro crew heading out to the wheatbelt region to do some astrophotography under Bortle 1 skies. The weather was crystal clear and freezing cold; by dawn ice formed on our cars, tents, and camping chairs. Despite having a warm sleeping bag in my swag, it was still miserably cold but nice to sleep under the stars nevertheless.

Despite rising to max of 47deg, with no light pollution toward the north, I thought I'd give NGC7479 (Cadwell 44), or also known as the Superman Galaxy located in Pegasus. a shot. It's a small target with approx 3.6 x 2.7 arcmin even for my Takahashi µ250CRS at native 2500mm. I just kept to this single target the whole night.

Specs of the acquisition is as follows :-

ASI6200MM Pro at Gain 0 Offset 50 -10C Bin1 with Antlia Pro LRGB filters
R: 6x 600 (1hr)
G: 6x 600 (1hr)
B: 10x 600 (1hr 40 mins)
L: 9x 600 (1hr 30 mins)
Total: 5 hrs 10 mins

Processing was done with PixInsight and cropped quite a bit (due to the sensor being FF). I'm still learning LRGB processing so I think there's much room for improvement. My stars do look bloated somewhat. Will get there eventually.

multiweb
07-09-2021, 08:15 AM
Top shot Sean. Really nice details and colors. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup: Worth the big freeze :lol:

PKay
07-09-2021, 08:53 AM
Super effort Sean!

You just need to get a better sleeping bag :)

Try using starnet to generate a star mask, it does quite a good job.

In histogram transformation, work in small increments zooming right in on the galaxy as you go. Watch the clipping number.

Well done :thumbsup:

AnakChan
07-09-2021, 01:52 PM
Thx for the feedback folks! Yes did try to use StarNet but I think I made my mistake of DynamicCropping it way early in the stage and did all the processing on a much smaller cropped image (where stars look bigger). I probably should have done minimal cropping first, do the processing then crop on the galaxy last.

AdamJL
09-09-2021, 08:23 PM
That’s awesome! How fortunate to have B1 skies so close as well. Definitely worth the freezing weather (and that tent is great btw!)

Retrograde
10-09-2021, 01:43 PM
Very nice image Sean. :thumbsup:

Superman Galaxy - hadn't heard of that one before but seeing the shape of the spiral arms it makes perfect sense (even if it appears to be reversed).

AnakChan
10-09-2021, 10:02 PM
I'm actually not certain when it got the name actually. I found searching NGC7479 gets more hits on AB than Superman. Quite possibly, it's a new nickname.

I think to image this one well, I'd need to larger than my current 10" 250CRS. I saw a version captured by 14" RC and that really has the resolution to capture the details.

neurosis3000
11-09-2021, 03:36 AM
I assumed it was because the galaxy looks like the S-shaped forelock in Superman's hair :lol:

Great image BTW, beyond the reach of my equipment and talent.

AdamJL
11-09-2021, 12:30 PM
(can you tell me what tent that is please? :))

AnakChan
11-09-2021, 04:09 PM
The tent is the Octans Portable Observatory by Astronomy Academy Perth. I wrote a quick review of it which I posted it up here :-

https://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?p=1533924#post153392 4