NGC253 - Sculptor

[Dave882]

Hi Guys - Here's my take on the Sculptor - a super dusty, bright starburst galaxy only 8Mly away.

I've been procrastinating massively on this one - with data back to July and August new moons, but a bunch of it in that weird few weeks where all my subs were messy and my flats weren't working. If I wasn't stuck inside with all this crap weather I reckon I would have just canned the whole thing...

But anyways here we are - a bit over 8hrs of data whittled down from well over 12...shot from the beautiful well-lit suburbs of Sydney :rofl: I was happy to be able to resolve plenty of dusty features in the bright core and outer spiral reaches. Hubble took some snaps of the core to reveal some super active star-forming (starburst) regions, which would explain why it's soo hard to tame :lol:. The star-field is pretty rough, and I did just enough noise reduction so that the defects weren't too distracting, but there's some interesting backgound galaxies so didn't want to push that too far.

492x 60sec subs (no/low moon)
gain 0
C14 non edge @f7 with the Starizona reducer LF
EQ8 pro
Asi2600mc pro (no filter)
Asi290mm / celestron OAG
ASIAIR pro / APP / PS
Binned (scaled) 50% in APP

Big one here showing all that dusty goodness! (https://1drv.ms/u/s!ArpSiLT3VkGHiPMieUprerGYumB7mw?e= lRLwoJ)

Cheers!

Edit- the jpg image reduction has changed the colour scheme for some reason - the big version is as it should be...

[AstroViking]

I think that's a great image, David. There's plenty of detail to be seen, and the colours (to my eyes) are spot-on.


Cheers,
V

[Startrek]

Dave,
Mammoth effort for an excellent result
Very nice Sculptor from that big scope , so much reach compared to my little 6” toy telescope
Detail and colour very pleasing to the eye
Yes I can see that you left some residual noise there to maintain some res and detail
I noticed your still using Gain 0 for short subs in heavy LP ? I’m sold on Gain 100 after my testing , definitely reduces noise but no loss in DR

Maybe give it a go ?

There some good posted threads and reading on CN regarding the 2600MC and Gain

Back to cloudy nights again …….

Cheers
Martin

[Dave882]

Thanks Steve- yes with such a dusty target it gives great contrast to the structure of the core.

[Dave882]

Thanks Martin- Sculptor is quite interesting in that it’s quite bright -virtually its entirety was revealed within about 2hrs integration, but the extra time was useful for smoothing things out and teasing out some core detail.

LOL your “toy” telescope is flaming awesome mate!

Good pickup with the gain- yes I’ve started shooting at 100 as of about a month ago and will give that a good crack and see how things go. This project pre-dates that change so still all gain0 data. I’m 90% planetary mode now with the c14 probably till the end of the year but yes it’s looking promising- I did ngc300 at gain100 and it worked well, but maybe not as big an improvement I was hoping for.

[Addos]

thats real nice dave! great preservation of the blue fringe and love the extra dust lanes you pick up with that monster scope. nice.

[Stephane]

Dave, you don’t mess around. That’s a great effort. My eyes are equally drawn all over the galaxy. You’ve brought out some nice details in all directions.

[Dave882]

Thanks mate- yes I was pleasantly surprised with all the dust detail especially into the central core. Just needed to reduce the highlights and contrast a bunch. I have to confess after seeing your beautiful pic I spent some time messing with settings to try and get some better star colour especially in those brighter ones to no avail…

[Dave882]

Cheers Stephane- yes this is a great target with plenty to offer being so close to us! Just a shame my data wasn’t as smooth as I’d like. I’ve been considering a repro but dunno it’s worth the pain!

[Retrograde]

You've brought out some great detail in this David. :thumbsup:

[EpickCrom]

Wow David, great work!

[Dave882]

Thanks Pete & Joe- I much appreciate the comments.
Dave