NGC55 (revisited) + NGC300

[AstroViking]

Hey all,

About a month back I posted an image of NGC55, taken from my suburban backyard.

The weather finally relented and I was able to add a further 3 hours of data (making 5 hours in total - the most I have ever captured of one target) to produce the image below.

Secondly, I nabbed it's neighbour - NGC300. This one is 3 hours worth of data, collected in one night. I would have got more, but I had to get up early the next morning and didn't want to leave my gear outside (the same as the evening of capturing NGC55).

I still have a very long way to go when it comes to processing images, and I suspect that different camera settings would have meant less light pollution, so I am not totally happy with these images. If you squint at them and don't look too closely, they look OK.

Cheers,
V

SW EvoStar 72ED @ 420mm
Nikon D7100 DSLR
HEQ5-Pro + SV305 + SV165

NGC55:
240 subs @ 60 seconds, ISO400
20 subs @ 180 seconds, ISO400 (pretty much at the meridian, so less LP)

NGC300:
180 subs @ 60 seconds, ISO400

Both stacked with bias, darks and flats in Siril then heavily cropped and worked on with Affinity Photo.

[xelasnave]

Invest in a sway and sleep by your gear:P
I think they look ok but I will look later on a bigger screen.
Alex

[Stephane]

Steve, some nice images there. I recently captured NGC 55 and am currently capturing NGC 300 until 1:30am before jumping to the iconic M42. Those galaxies are not as easy as they look to process, so you’ve done well.

I am by no means an expert, but if I may offer one suggestion, and that would be to apply a mask when applying saturation. You want to add colour to the galaxies and stars, but not to the background.

Again, well done on these targets. We’re finally getting sone clear nights in Melbourne.

[AstroViking]

Hi Alex and Stephane,

Thanks for the kind words.

Alex - I am my harshest critic, and have been (unfairly) comparing my work to that of astrophotographers with much better equipment and vastly more experience. I suspect I won't ever be happy with my work, even it I produce an APOY winner...

Stephane - +wry grin+. I was struggling to get the noise out of the background without killing the detail (such as there is) in the galaxies. I've found that the Siril Histogram transformation brings out the DSO really well, but amplifies the murky-brown noise in the background.

Siril has a bit of a learning "cliff" and I need to start letting go of the pre-made scripts and venture into the deeper waters of what the program can really do.

Cheers,
V

[oska]

Nice one Steve. I too find the processing "steep" indeed.

[Crater101]

What's that like...? :shrug:


These are good. Like yourself, I find myself comparing the images I'm doing with award winners, and they never look quite good enough to me. But you've got some neat work here, and I look forward to seeing more of it. :thumbsup:

[Startrek]

Those are excellent images considering your using a camera originally designed for terrestrial / landscape photography
Well done !!
DSLR’s ( except the latest Canon Astro versions ) were never designed for long exposure Astrophotography , but we still use them as they are great way to get into the hobby , cost effective, easy to use and an excellent real time live view
I used a Canon for 3 years under Bortle 8 City suburban skies with my 6” and 8” Newts , it was a great way to start and excellent learning curve into the hobby
However with DSLR’s quantum efficiency is low ( around 40% ) and the sensor electronics has no cooling so noise is a HUGE problem.
You can dither and capture your calibration frames , lower your ISO and run a small fan attached to the DSLR ( like I did ) but you can never really mitigate the noise which in turn reduces your signal or detail

I struggled on year after year and then bit the bullet and bought a ZWO cooled OSC camera. Absolutely chalk and cheese in regards to image quality detail , and most importantly Noise floor etc…
You don’t need a wiz bang super duper telescope, my scopes are cheap newts , the camera ( and guiding ) is everything in long exposure Astrophotography

I recommend to make the move to Cooled OSC as soon as you can afford it , you will never look back. ZWO and QHY have a great variety of cooled OSC cameras to suit all types of Scopes and FOV etc…

Some folk move straight to Mono and filters from their humble beginnings using a DSLR which is my next move in 2023 after using the cooled OSC for nearly 3 years now . I will always keep and use the cooled OSC even when progressing to Mono

Clear Skies
Martin

[AstroViking]

Thanks for the kind words, folks.

Martin - A dedicated astro-cam is on the cards. Leaning very heavily towards mono + filters as the next step. Just need to find the pennies...

Cheers,
V

[Nikolas]

Great images there Steve nice work