NGC 5128 Centaurus A under Sydney skies

[Startrek]

Saturday evening in Sydney was the best nights imaging I’ve had for 6 months or longer . I was surprised at the number of single stars I could see under our terrible light pollution. Usually look up and see only a handful
Conditions were really good with no dew , no moon , very light westerly and more importantly my neighbours either side of me didn’t have the huge light spill from their flood lights blasting my backyard ( lucky I guess ) Apart from issues I’ve had with my optical train of my little Newt , I managed to put together a reasonable image ( still haven’t got the field nice and flat with round stars across the whole field , a work in progress)

6” f6 Bintel GSO newt ( Bintel have advertised this scope primarily for visual use since 2016 )
Skywatcher EQ6-R pro mount
ZWOASI2600MC cooled to -10C , Gain 100 lowest read noise
No filters
Baader MPCC Mk3 coma corrector ( looking for a possible upgrade )
EQMOD, Stellarium, APT
PHD2 Multistar guiding at 0.50 to 0.55 arc sec total ( best this mount has performed since I’ve tuned and rebalanced it )
Bortle 7/8
75 x 90 sec dithered guided subs
40 x Flats
50 x Bias
Stacked in DSS
Processed in Startools V1.7 OSC Linear data set

Original frame
Crop version
Super Crop version

Comments welcome
Thanks

[Stephane]

Sensational Martin. 90 second subs seems to have worked nicely. May I ask why you’re looking to upgrade the CC? I can’t see any coma whatsoever. Beautiful result, especially given just under 2 hours @ f/6.

[PKay]

Right up there with your best M!

Very well done and nicely processed :thumbsup:

[Dave882]

Great image Martin! I am constantly amazed at what you manage to pull from that 6” newt in terms of fine detail, and all in under 2hrs. Super job mate!

[Startrek]

Thanks Stephane
Appreciate your nice comments
The Baader MCCP CC works ok but stars tend to be are a bit softer towards to edge of frame
Looking at a TS Optics GPU 4 element 2” CC
Martin

[Startrek]

Peter,
Thanks
Really good conditions help a bit too
M

[Startrek]

Thanks Dave
This 6 year old little $299 newt keeps amazing me too ( and it’s not even a bonifide Astro graph either )
The 2600MC is a great companion
Cheers
Martin

[gregbradley]

Very nice Martin.

I imaged this myself last night and hope to combine it with my archived data I have from previous years imaging (a commonly imaged object over the years). I managed after several hours of trying and losing a clear night with good seeing at my dark site (gold indeed) to debug my system and the scope slewed like it should.

Surprisingly good for such a low total exposure time. Lucky imaging has some impressive results. It seems like a lot of processing work though?

Greg.

[Startrek]

Thanks very much Greg,
Yes very pleased with the result considering my heavy skyglow and my recent problems with the optical train.
It did capture 90 subs and discarded 15
As far as processing this image, my set up is fairly straightforward and doesn’t take too much time
Review subs In Astap ( about 15mins )
Load subs register and stack in Deep Sky Stacker ( about 20 mins )
Processed stacked file in Startools (about 1 hour 30 mins )
Total time about 2 hours or so

Cheers
Martin

[strongmanmike]

Pretty good result there Martone, a really good Cen A, especially considering your skies, top work :thumbsup: Every time I see a shot of Cen A taken with modern imaging equipment, I always think back to one of my first ever deep sky photos (https://pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/160317559/original), taken waaay back in1984, using a Celesteron 5, with a dry ice driven cold camera and B&W film...ah sigh...thanks for the little bit of nostalgia...:love: and think about how lucky we are in these modern imaging times...perhaps I am just getting old :question: :P

Mike

[Startrek]

Thanks Mike
Muchas Gracias
Not bad for a banged around little $300 newt
How’s things going up there on top of Mount Everest
I think when your sites finished 60 minutes or some other channel should do a doco on your journey to have the highest amateur observatory in Australia. Would be well received by the general public

Cheers
Martin

[strongmanmike]

Indeed :thumbsup:



Aaaah well'a...he he..watch'a this'a space'a ;)

Mike

[AdamJL]

Excellent work, Martin, especially from Sydney skies.

[AstroViking]

Lovely work, Martin.

[Startrek]

Thanks Adam !!

[Startrek]

Thanks Steve 👍