NGC1097 in LRGB

[AnakChan]

This has been the project for the past 3 weeks, capturing NGC1097, a barred spiral in Fornax in LRGB. The scope used is the Takahashi µ250CRS at native 2500mm F10, with the ZWO ASI6200MM through Antlia Pro LRGB filters.

Total number of hours of integration is 15 hrs 40 mins in the following breakdown :-

Lum: 106x 5min
Red: 23x 5min
Green: 25x 5min
Blue: 34x 5min

All at Gain 0 offset 50 Bin1x1 with sensor cooled to -10C.

A higher res is available in Astrobin, but don't look too closely :D : https://astrob.in/sgp4sw/0/

Edit: I added the inverted Lum view to show the jets emanating from the galaxy core. There's meant to be 4 but I only captured 2 of them.

[PKay]

Nice work Sean

I did have a close look and IMO it is just fine.

This galaxy (6' X 3') is on my bucket list, so will use your result as a guide.

Might also have a look with the Ha filter.

Well done :thumbsup:

[AnakChan]

Thanks Peter! I did consider adding Ha to it too but then PerthNow was stating that we may have hail today so I packed up my tent/scope. I've left it out for the past 3 weeks and now there's a dead patch :D.

[PKay]

Hey Sean

Build an observatory!

Maybe a dome, maybe a shed.

Makes it easier in the long run...

[Placidus]

Looking very fine indeed. Lots of yummy detail and some good background galaxies. Congratulations.

Your high-res is 31 megabytes. Given the realities of seeing and guiding, unless you're in the Atacama or Mauna Kea or Pic du Midi, land-based astro-images at this image scale can be JPEG compressed to about 2 megabytes with no important loss of data.

[AnakChan]

Mike/Trish,

Cheers, thx for the guide on the file size. I wasn't certain what size most ppl upload to AB.

Peter,

I'd love to have that however the garden is co-shared with my kids :D.

[AnakChan]

So the question is how do folks like this :-

https://www.astrobin.com/eqo0c5/

extract so much detail out of an 8" Newt with such pinpoint stars!? How do I improve my processing to be able to get that amount of detail and resolution?

[strongmanmike]

That's a pretty good result Sean, well done...and you can juuuust start to make out the 3rd jet in your negative version...:thumbsup:

Lee Borsboom, was taking some of the best images of galaxies (and other objects), with any 8" telescope, anywhere on the planet! He was a clever processor and (mostly ;)) used deconvolution very well in his work flow and was fastidious in his mastery of collimation, so this enabled him to take good advantage of his very fine image scale. It is image scale and not focal length that counts...but that's a whole nother discussion :rolleyes:

Shame Lee gave imaging away, a great loss to the deep sky imaging world IMO, I really enjoyed seeing his results :)

Mike

[AnakChan]

Thanks Mike!

I did try decon initially but I probably overdid it as it left weird wormy artefacts despite try indifferent values and reiterations so dropped it altogether. I may give it a shot again with this image given more time.

I probably should have been fussier with my subframe selection too (but then I'd be left with fewer hours of integration). We had days of good/bad seeing where I was. Also I was on Bin1 and with my setup it put me at 0.31"/px which was quite oversampled.

[Ryderscope]

A complex and very interesting target Sean producing a great result :thumbsup:

[AnakChan]

Thank you Rodney! Appreciate the compliment!

I've been looking at Adaptive Optics and wondering if that's a path forward for retaining subs with greater detail (and reduce the amount of subs I have to ditch). But the SBIG approach seems to be quite a hefty investment and may have to consider the Starlight Express Adaptive Optics which is more brand agnostic.

[pkinchington]

Very nice!