M104 - The Sombrero Galaxy

[AstroViking]

Hi all,

No wall of text today, as I really can't be stuffed. (Blame Monday-itis, it's a fair excuse. :) )

Taken from Lake Tyrell last weekend (May 21st, 2023) during a night of spectacularly clear skies, although the skyglow was a pain in the arse to remove during processing. I've never seen it like that before...

Gear: SW72ED @420mm / ASI183MC-Pro / HEQ5-Pro / SV165+SV305 / KStars+Ekos

Gain: 100
Offset: 10
Temp : 0 Celcius
Exposure: 120 @ 60 seconds
Darks: 25
Flats/DarkFlats: 0

Stacked with Siril and touched up with Affinity Photo.

Image needs more data, stars are a bit bright, operator needs more sleep/coffee.

Cheers,
V

[Doogs38]

Thats a great image, Steve, with excellent detail and a lovely soft halo.Thanks for sharing. Is this a crop or the full FOV with the 72ED and 183MC? Alex

[carlstronomy]

Looking good, nice image and thanks for sharing. Coffee always makes for good images :P

[AstroViking]

Thanks Alex & Carl. :-)

Alex - it's a crop. The '183 sensor is 5496x3672 pixels and my working image was 4300x2400 pixels. (And then scaled down dramatically for posting here.)

Cheers,
V

[oska]

Good work V. Galaxies @420mm aint easy. Very well done.

[xelasnave]

Excellent image at such a short F/L ...well done.
Although I do think you were a bit lean on text...
Alex

[Stephane]

Nice one Steve, well done! I like the framing where its not perfectly horizontal.

[AstroViking]

Alex and Stephane, thanks for the compliments. :)

I suspect I'm pushing for targets that are a bit beyond my scope's reach (and then wanting images like those from Hubble) and need to rein in my expectations a bit...

Alex, I fully agree I was pretty light-on with the text. My excuse is that I just wasn't in the mood to churn out another War-and-Peace saga for an image I wasn't really happy with. (And no doubt I've disappointed oska as well. :sadeyes:)

I'll make sure I have the mojo for a good slab of text to go with my next image.

Cheers,
V

[xelasnave]

Steve you really need to be happy with all images...it really makes the game enjoyable...I have nights where the result is not flash but it is still a night of being out there...and each time you learn a little...and I like my images...I remember where I came from and my worst image is now way better than I could ever see producing...

If you want to push it ...dither after every sub and drizzle when stacking...take a 1000 and stack the best 500...only image an hour before and after zenith...use a baffled dew tube..refocus every15 minutes....and use only Kodak film.

You are doing well so see it that way and enjoy the journey.

Alex

[AstroViking]

Thanks Alex.

I am my own worst critic, and I know that I don't do myself any favours by looking at images produced by people with far more experience and knowledge than myself and making comparisons with my work.

Cheers,
V