NGC235 - 4 hours worth

[cventer]

Took this over last 2 nights in Melbourne.

I just finsihed and came inside and did a quick process. My dark frames are running as we speak, so this has no dark subtraction or flats so background is a little wired and I am alo processing on a laptop right now, so blackpoint is probably out.

Its about 90 min Luminance Data and 150min RGB data.
Taken from inner suburbs of Melbourne with a C9.25 XLT Carbon Fiber, Losmandy G-11/Gemini and an SBIG ST2000XM, with CFW8A, Astrodon Tru Balance Filters and an Sbig AO7 guiding at 5 hz.

Processed with Registar, PhotoShop CS, Neat Image and Gradient Xterminator Plug ins

It damn cold here right now. Temp last night when I finished was 3.2 degrees. Its 5 right now. Time to crawl into bed and warm the hand up on the sleeping love of my life. (no not my Tak refractor)

Best Regards
Chris Venter

[xrekcor]

Nice image, but it kinda looks like NGC253 to me :D

regards

[RB]

Fantastic image, cventer, wow......

:thumbsup:

[cometcatcher]

I'm sure your love will appreciate your 5 degree hand with a scream. :)

That's a lot of hours but what a fantastic image.

[acropolite]

That's one seriously nice image...:D

[Striker]

Thats just Beautiful Chris...well done

I wish I new what this means "Its about 90 min Luminance Data"

[Dennis]

Superb image Chris - I look forward to the "cleaned up" version. Was this at f10 of f6.3?

Cheers

Dennis

[davidpretorius]

great image

[Orion]

That is absolutely beautiful. Well done!

[[1ponders]]

Nice detail Chris:thumbsup: Beautiful shot.

[seeker372011]

wow, that's one of the nicest images of this galaxy I've seen

[Robby]

Awesome Chris.. The C9.25 is doing you well :).. Time to wind up all the Meade boyz on this group! They have it in for us Celestron owners!
Power to the C9 !

[gaa_ian]

HST stand aside ... that is one awesome image !
I think the Aussie Astro mags are going to need a "Iceinspace Image's" section :thumbsup:
There is so much good astrophotography coming from members here.
Hey Mike ...how about a members Image Gallery, where we can feature the best of Iceinspace Images ?

[davidpretorius]

no you are wrong about other magazines, they will be published and fully copyrighted in the excellent new publication bi monthly magazine "ICEINSPACE"

they can be bought at you local "ICEINSPACE" newsagent and can be paid for using " the new $20 "ICEINSPACE" bank notes or your frequent eyepiece buyer linked "ICEINSPACE" credit card!!!

[gaa_ian]

BTW ... we were looking at 253 last night, it would have to be one of the best galaxies at the moment, with both an LX90 & GS 10" dob it shows an amazing amount of detail and is still crisp & clear.
I found it particully good with my 7mm widefield (Seibert optics) eyepiece, looks much like the thumbnail shown here (minus the colour naturally)

[slice of heaven]

I second that Ian.
The pics deserve to be put on show, and a gallery would be a plus for the site.

Great pic by the way Chris :thumbsup:

[asimov]

WOW! What a glorious shot Chris. Well done mate.

[atalas]

Great shot Chris !


Louie :eyepop:

[cometcatcher]

The picture is an LRGB (Luminance, Red, Green, Blue) composite. Each colour channel is imaged separately and combined later. The luminance channel has no colour information and is usually the bulk of the exposure since it contains the um.. luminance part of the picture. The luminance channel can also be filtered but usually isn't for natural effect.

[RB]

Hey Chris,


I hope you don't mind but I'm using your image as a background on my computer and it's stunning.......

:jawdrop:

[Raymond]

Excellant resolutions and details. Worth the time !

[gaa_ian]

Yep ...now my desktop too
Superceded the hubble deep field I had there !

[h0ughy]

wow, flaming fantastic!!! the detail is awesome

[cventer]

Thanks for the Kind words everyone. I will post a reprocessed one once I have have some time to do a dark subtraction and take some flats.....


Best Regards
Chris Venter

[seeker372011]

Chris, sorry can you explain what all this means?Others may know know but I must admit I dont :help:

[cventer]

Which parts did you want explained ?

The CFW8A stands for Color Filter Wheel. 8A is the Model number from SBIG. It comes standard with a set of custom scientific Red, Green , Blue and Clear filters. I replaced those stock ones with a set of filter from Don Goldman called Astrodon Filters. These filters allow you to image all colors , Red, Green and Blue with the same length of time exposures and you get near perfect color balance without having to stuff around with different color combination ratios.

The AO7 is an adaptive optics device that moves a small mirror in front of the light path at up to 10 times a second to keep a star perfectly centred.

These links tell you about dark frames and flat frames
http://www.ghg.net/akelly/process.htm#9
http://www.starizona.com/ccd/procbasiccal.htm
http://www.starizona.com/ccd/procadvcal.htm

Feel free to ask any other questions....

Best Regards
Chris Venter

[seeker372011]

thanks very much, I just didnt know what Astrodon was all about

[iceman]

Incredible image Chris, is there a full-res version available?

Regarding darks and flats, don't forget there's a great article by our own Eddie Trimarchi, here on IceInSpace: http://www.iceinspace.com.au/index.php?id=63,211,0,0,1,0

[EddieT]

Wow, that is a seriously awesome image of 253. The Celestron 9.25 is capable of producing some excellent images judging from what I've seen so far around the traps.

Well done Chris!

[cventer]

Evening all,

Tonight I took some flats and then redid the processing with flats and dark subtraction.

This is the new image attached, plus a higher res version for those interested.

http://www.dslrfocus.com/NGC253-C925Hi-Res.jpg

Best Regards
Chris Venter

[[1ponders]]

Brilliant Chris. New desktop image :cool: Any one here know how to automatically cycle desktop images. I've got so many from this site now I don't know which one to use :(

[atalas]

:jawdrop: :jawdrop:










Louie :)

[iceman]

Stunning Chris, even better than the first. Amazing detail and one of the best shots of 253 i've seen.

[fringe_dweller]

mmmmm beautiful round stars - thats what i love about the high end CCD's the most - super job Chris - go the southerners :D
Kearn