Ngc253

[Paul Haese]

This is an image of NGC253 also known as the Silver Coin Galaxy. It is located in the constellation of Sculptor at a distance of 12.8 million light years.

The data was collected at Swan Reach Imaging over the course of several nights with a total integration of 21 hours.
Imaging equipment was an OOUK AG12 with ZWO 6200 on a PME mount.

I have now migrated fully to using NINA with the advanced sequencer which is excellent if you have a weather abort situation. After the weather abort clears the roof reopens and then my systems go back to imaging the various targets I have lined up. It is very efficient in the use of clear nights.

Click here (https://paulhaese.net/NGC253AG12.html) for the larger image

[Peter Ward]

So much to like about this image....but... not so sure about the baby-blue colour :question:

Stars are Uber crisp with excellent profiles...and the myriad of faint fuzzies in the surrounding field are very cool.
I'm guessing the seeing was kind during the data run...a testimony to great skies and no hill required. :)

Nice one :thumbsup:

[strongmanmike]

Some good exposure time there Paul, as a result and armed with your dark skies, your outer halo, something never revealed in amateur images of this galaxy until about a decade or so ago and still pretty rarely :shrug: is nicely revealed :thumbsup:

Mike

[TrevorW]

Nicely done, shame the jpg thumbnail doesn't show the quality of the data and processing as the as does your link :)

[AlexN]

Sensational image Paul. Details are so crisp and defined...

I'm with Peter on the colour, the blue is a little light - that is however the most petty of criticisms when the rest of the image is so damn good

[willik]

Just a bit over on the blue for me but otherwise a Nise image

[Ryderscope]

Fantastic Paul. A nice combination of the 6200 camera with the AG12.

[Paul Haese]

Thanks guys for the comments and discussion about the colour. I have done a reduction by 30% on the blue in the galaxy. It's now less fluro I think.:shrug:



Yeah seeing is often good on the Murray plains, it helps with the sharpness of the data. Using NINA has also improved the results too. The focusing is better than Focusmax I think and after using Maxim for guiding for years I am now using PHD2 for guiding. From empirical evidence it appears that guiding is much better overall. The change has provided positive results.



Yes the halo of any galaxy is often hard to capture but dark skies make for an easy capture of it. The hard part from then on is retaining it in the processing. I think it is easy just to push the contrast a bit too much and that can kill the halo that might be present on any galaxy. My last attempt at this I did not show the halo all that well. Pushing the contrast on that particular image would have reduced the halo visible. Processing is always a learning exercise.

[Peter Ward]

Interesting. Then again guiding at 1140mm is a bit of a doddle.

I'll be very interested to see how it goes at say, 3250mm ;)

You never know, it might even make me a convert :)

[alpal]

Hi Paul,
nice work - top data.

I still think it's far too blue.
An easy way to reduce it in Photoshop is to convert the mode to Lab Color
and the b slider in curves on the LHS up to reduce just the blue.
Then convert back to RGB and have 2 layers - one - your original
and the other the modified one -
then do a blurred layer mask to only make the change on the galaxy.
Still - everyone is different in how they want their picture to appear.
You certainly have wonderful data - much better than I ever got.

cheers
Allan

[kinetic]

Hi Paul,


A cracker of a result!


The full image is so crisp!


Steve

[JA]

A superb image Paul. Well done :thumbsup:

Best
JA

[gregbradley]

Wow, what a cracker!!
Superb Paul.
I am seeing only the latest version and the blue looks good to me.
That outer halo though is the standout feature.
I think most galaxies are larger than usual images show and you have demonstrated that very well here.

Greg

[Startrek]

Hi Paul,
Beautiful image of the Sculptor or Silver Coin with super fine detail
That halo is incredible but what else do you expect from nice dark skies and a boat load of good data.
Colour is nice but seems a little bit bleached to me ( OMI by the way )
Cheers
Martin

[matlud]

Fantastic image Paul!