My First Galaxy - NGC 253 Sculpter Galaxy

[Matty P]

Hi all,

I had a day off yesterday and took full advantage of the clear skies. There was some scattered cloud hanging around but they cleared long before I started imaging. The Moon luckily didn't cause any problems so I was very happy. The seeing conditions were terrible but stayed fairly steady during the night.

This is my very first image of a Galaxy so I am extremely pleased with it. The only real problem I had during the capture was not being able to locate a suitable guidestar. It took me a good 30 minutes or more to find one. It frustrated me to the point I almost packed everything up.

I decided to not use ICNR darks but instead take seperate darks after aquiring the lights allowing me to capture more lights.

The real success is that I got PHD all working properly. Thanks to changing one setting on the mount. :D

Details are as follows,

Celestron 8" SCT f/6.3 1260mm fl on EQ6 Pro
Guided with 70mm refractor, DMK21 and PHD
Canon 450D
10 x 5 minute subs at ISO 800
Darks, Offset/Bias & Flats subtracted
Stacked in DSS and processed in PS CS3.

For higher Res have a look here.
http://astromatt7.googlepages.com/NGC253website2.jpg/NGC253website2-full;init:.jpg

Thanks for looking. :thumbsup:
http://astromatt7.googlepages.com/home

[Dennis]

Matt, you have done very well to produce this fine portrait of NGC253. I have tidied up some of the (slightly trailed) field stars to make them round, which improves the overall appearance I think.

Cheers

Dennis

[leon]

Great effort Matty, especially for a first attempt at such an object, I know the frustration you go through if one can't find a guide star in certain areas of the sky, I have been there many times, well done indeed.

Leon

[Matty P]

Thanks Dennis, :)

Yes, it does really help to have round stars. I reason they are slightly elongated is probably because during capture the galaxy was closer to the edge of the frame instead of being in the centre.

Another thing, how did you make the stars round?

:thumbsup:

[Matty P]

Thanks Leon, :)

It was just one of those days. :rolleyes: One day no matter where you point the guidescope you will find a guidestar. Any other day it will take you forever to find one and no matter how hard you try, you wont be able to find one. It is just how it goes. :lol:

:thumbsup:

[leinad]

Great work Matty.
What was that one setting on the mount you had to change ?

[Lester]

Well done.

[Dennis]

Hi Matt

I found a free Photoshop plug in just yesterday. Here is the link (http://www.grekalova.com/photo_Astroplugins.html)to the website, although some of the links seem to be broken.

The plug in is at the bottom, called "Star Rounder.8bf".

I noticed that it did some undesirable things to the galaxy so I used the CS3 Lasso tool to select the galaxy and did an “inverse select” which is why the stars in front of NGC253 were not rounded.

Cheers

Dennis

[bluescope]

Good effort for your first galaxy Matty.

[jase]

I concur, for a first galaxy image you've done a good job Matty. Onward and upward from here.

[g__day]

Great job there! I did took one 20 minute shot of NGC 253 last night too on a C9 -> Canon 400D - I think yours looks better than mine! Yep getting a guide star was pretty challenging on this one. Great processing of a faint subject!

[Matty P]

Thanks for you kind comments guys, I really appreciate it. :)

I have updated both images with new ones getting rid of the slightly elongated stars.

:thumbsup:

[prova]

Well done mate, great first attempt

[RB]

Onya Matty, very nice start mate.

:thumbsup:

[Matty P]

Thanks guys. :thumbsup:

[beren]

:thumbsup: Well done Matty great start

[Matty P]

Thanks Beren. :)

[Matty P]

Hi Leinad,

All I did was change the slew rate to 1. I read about it in a previous thread in the equipment section and to my surprise, it has actually fixed the problem that I had been having.

:thumbsup:

[Quark]

Hi Matty,
What a great first effort.
Have you had the 450D modified.

I am thinking about a digital SLR, maybe a 450D. I have no experience at all with digital SLR astrophotography.
Does the live image come up on the LCD display?

From a brief look through this forum it seems modified cameras are the go but what can be done with an out of the box camera such as the 450D?

Regards
Trevor

[peeb61]

Great image Matty..way to go, 253 is one of my favorites too!

Paul

[TrevorW]

Crap image Matty, thought I'd throw that in before your head got too big.

Honestly not bad for a first go keep it up

;)

[Tandum]

Looks pretty good to me for a back yard job Matt.
Wish I could have a go now the sky is clear :(
As you've found out, there is a noise battle when imaging galaxies from suburbia.
Next time I try, there will be a bucket load more subs.

[Matty P]

Thanks Trevor,

I'll send you a PM. :thumbsup:

[Matty P]

Thanks Paul, TrevorW and Robin.

Yes, I have found that imaging galaxies from suburbia is quite difficult especially when you have an almost full moon to tend with as well. If it stays clear tonight I am hoping to have another go at this Galaxy.

[strongmanmike]

Sorry I forgot so reply to this thread Matt, I've been looking but kept getting distracted, it's a really nice image mate! I think your original effort is better than the adjusted one by Denis though (sorry Denis :P) the amount of star out-of-roundness was not too bad in your original IMO.

I am surprised you had such trouble finding guide stars though there are a few bright stars near NGC 253 :shrug: There two nice bright candidates right next to the galaxy..?

Mike

[Matty P]

Thanks Mike,

Finding a guidestar is easier said than done sometimes. I took me quite a while to find those two next to the galaxy.

I am thinking of upgrading my guidescope soon. :)

:thumbsup:

[Matty P]

Well, If the clouds hold out tonight. I am going to have another go at the Sculpter Galaxy. :D

[Ric]

A nice image Matt, you've got some lovely detail starting to show through in the centre of the galaxy.

Stick with the galaxy imaging, here ar some great sights to be aptured out there.

Cheers

[dcalleja]

Matt
Good job on this and nicely framed too.

[Matty P]

Thanks Ric and Dan.

I was hoping to image the Sculpter Galaxy last night but the full Moon didn't allow me to. A 5 minute sub looked like a flat frame. :rolleyes:

I'll definitely give it a go next time.

:thumbsup: