NGC253 from last night, and first light with WO 0.8x

[iceman]

Hi all

Things started coming together last night (story here (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=25353)).

This image of NGC253 consists of 54x 60s exposures, calibrated, aligned and stacked (average) in Images Plus, followed by DDP in IP, and final adjustments in photoshop.

Imaged through Saxon ED80 with WO 0.8x reducer/flattener, mounted on EQ6, with Canon 350D @ ISO1600.

Some of the exposures were hand-guided through a side-by-side mounted 80mm f/5 refractor and my DMK21AF04. Auto-guiding is next!

I balanced everything nicely before starting, but then of course I forgot to re-balance after adding the two cameras, which accounted for my inability to go longer than 60s without trailing.

I'm pretty happy with how it's all coming together. The WO reducer works nicely - the stars are nice and sharp and have good colour - not just featureless white blobs.

Thanks for looking.

[Ric]

A great image Mike, I always enjoy the floating island effect that galaxies produce. As you mentioned as well the stars look great as point of coloured light.

A fine effort.

[iceman]

Thanks Ric.
Here's an almost full-res crop of the galaxy itself.

[ballaratdragons]

Mike, the wide-angle shot is a beauty.

The crop shows the star-traling.

When you get your Auto-guiding happening you'll be over the Moon!
You will be able to crop to your hearts content.

Your NGC253 shows good detail (in the wide image) and very nice colour.

I agree with Ric's comment. The wide-angle gives the impression of 253 just floating around lost in Space.

[tornado33]

Nice shot there, good colour rendition too.
Scott

[RB]

Nice work Mike.

:thumbsup:

[Geoff45]

Good shot Mike. Once you get the AG going, you'll be able to take 10 min exposures and get a good signal to noise ratio.
Geoff

[gbeal]

Nice Mike, getting there, and a whole heap faster than I ever did. Cooincidently, I got 1.5 hours worth of this object last night, (9 exposures, each 10 minutes), as it is placed well for where I image from. Not processed yet.
You have tried the ToUcam for guiding? If not, try it, If I am not using the dual chipped SBIG it is what I use.
Gary

[leon]

Beauty Mike, I also like it how these wide fields give the fastness of space with Galaxies, and other objects just floating around in the darkness, well done.

leon

[Lee]

Excellent shot Mike..... Galaxy shots are my favourites, you have done it proud... :thumbsup:

[jase]

Making steady progress Mike. I can certainly see an improvement in your processing. Like the others have said, auto guiding and flats would take you to the next level, increasing image quality output. The elongated stars not only detract from the image, but are obviously reducing image quality/resolution of the centerpiece object. I feel certain once you sort these out, you'll deliver that "killer" image we're all waiting for.

[iceman]

Thanks Gary, I look forward to seeing your version!
I don't need to use the ToUcam - i'm using the DMK for hand-guiding, and will use it for auto-guiding very soon.


Thanks Jase, appreciate your comments.
Auto-guiding is next, then flats. I'm avoiding flats at the moment because i'm just too lazy :) But i'll get around to it one day and create some master flats and probably use them forever :)

Thanks everyone else for your comments.

[[1ponders]]

If you are going to guide manually off the screen you might want to consider using K3 Mike. Even with V1 you will find it much easier to use the graph to guide with rather than trying to watch for movement of the star on the screen. Using the drift explorer graph you will be able to correct to within a couple of pixels movement, even by hand. I spent a while using this method when I couldn't get my mount to talk to the laptop properly.

[iceman]

Thanks Paul, i'll try that. I used Al's ICCA screen-reticle to put crosshairs over the star, so I could tell when it was drifting.

But yes, something more advanced is probably a good idea until I get auto-guiding happening.

[RB]

Mike my understanding is that you need to take flats every session because you change camera orientation each time you setup, unless you have a permanent setup and the camera is always on the scope.

[iceman]

Damn, not want I wanted to hear!

Thanks for nothing RB! :)