NGC 4945 - Colour Added!

[marc4darkskies]

Here is the colour version of the Luminance image I posted last week. Saturday was a great night - zero clouds all night long and seeing quite good after midnight. In fact, I can't remember a night in the last 8 months where clouds haven't dogged me at some point! Anyway, I managed to get 80 mins each for RGB (binned 2x2) on top of the 2 hrs Luminance for a total of 6 hours of data. I went 2x2 because I was at F11.7.

My processing was inspired by Rob Gendler's version. I like seeing vivid colours in a galaxy image. The halo turned out a treat too I think - so quite pleased overall.

Small: http://www.pbase.com/gailmarc/image/110479642/large
Large: http://www.pbase.com/gailmarc/image/110479642/original

I may yet go for some more data, but this will do for now!

Cheers, Marcus

[multiweb]

Nice! The dust lanes in this galaxy look pretty full on. Heaps of colors :thumbsup:

[kinetic]

That is just SOOO beautiful Marcus.

Awesome!.

Steve

[Paul Haese]

Superb image Marcus, so smooth rich colour. Great work.

[allan gould]

Really, really nice. Great shot and colour is excellent

[RobF]

Wow. That's beautiful Marcus :eyepop:

[Craig_L]

Stunning Marcus, the dust lanes standing out so well against those delicate colours.

[Peter Ward]

This is an excellent image Marcus.

Sure, with better seeing, bigger 'scope, ( preferably in low earth-orbit) you could do better.

Gotta be happy with that. :thumbsup:

[strongmanmike]

Excellent job Marcus

It's an awesome galaxy

It does look a bit close up to me, like I wish I could zoom it out a bit to take it in properly and hide the processing a bit..?

Wha tha? Too closeup????? I can see Freds startled face now :scared: :bashcomp::mad:



MIke

[CoolhandJo]

What a difference a bit of colour makes!

[atalas]

Top work Marc!

[bluescope]

Looks like it's on fire Marcus ... nice work !

:thumbsup:

[Garyh]

Excellent Marcus! I love those strong colors as well in galaxy shots!
cheers Gary

[marc4darkskies]

:thanks:Thanks Marc, Steve, Paul, Allan, Rob & Craig. Glad you liked it! This galaxy wasn't on my radar until recently and I went for it because of it's vibrant colour & riot of dust lanes. The extent of the halo was an unexpected bonus.



Thanks a lot Peter. Yep, a few moonless nights of sub arcsec seeing would be nice! I live in hope. Bigger scope? - maybe one day. I do occassionally daydream of owning a 14.5" RCOS'. I am amazed what a mere 5.9" scope will do though.



Cheers Mike - appreciate that! Waaa?? ......... too CLOSE UP!!!! :shrug: Ya just can't please some folks can ya!! ;) Seriously though, I'm not a big fan of the small-galaxy-in-a-large-featureless-star-field look unless it's a cluster.

Hide the PROCESSING!!!!! :mad2: Here, look below, I've attached the completely unprocessed RGB frame (initial stretch only, 50% scale & massively compressed) for your enjoyment :P;):lol:









:thanks:Thanks guys. It does kind of look like it's on fire, I think it's the inferno-like look of Rob Gendler's rendition (see here (http://www.robgendlerastropics.com/NGC4945.html)) that I liked.

Cheers, Marcus


Attached below: The "before" picture - completely unprocessed RGB frame (initial stretch only, 50% scale & massively compressed) for Mike's viewing pleasure

[Bassnut]

WOW Marc, VERY impressive, perfect composition, awesome detail, brilliant colour, the "Mike likes it that way" WF is woefull by comparison. Best image Ive seen in a long while, top work.

[marc4darkskies]

Hey thanks Fred - glowing praise indeed - much appreciated!!

Close-ups rule!!! :D

Cheers, Marcus

[strongmanmike]

Ah, I thought you had heavily cropped the image.

Ok it needs some work - gradients, coax out the outer halo a tad etc but the full frame version is quite natural looking. I think you could crop it a bit but just not as much as the version you presented IMO. Might be nice to see a couple'a different versions even?

Still, either way, nice work

Mike

[marc4darkskies]

Thanks again Mike - but I only processed the crop on this one. The full frame is on the cutting room floor where it belongs. Besides, Rembrandt only ever painted one version of his pictures, right? ;):D

Cheers, Marcus

[gregbradley]

Oooh mate! That is drop dead gorgeous.

I agree with Fred one of the best images for ages. Super well done!

Roland Christen remarked several months ago about the virtues of
barlowing up an APO to get maximum resolution. You are really showing that to be an excellent way to go.

You would be very hard pressed to better that result even with a large RC.

You are showing an excellent APO has real real depth potential. Not everyone likes the diffraction spikes of compound scopes.

That's it, I'm ordering the Baader FFC from AP!

Greg.

[jase]

Excellent Marcus. I have to agree, I also like the rich colours you've brought out. Visually pleasing in many aspects. DM award contender indeed.

[strongmanmike]

Yeh..? shame...:sadeyes:

It is nice to look so closely at the galaxy sure but your wider vista is also excellent IMO and with a bit of Marcus magic would be a great image too :thumbsup: Maybe when you have time one day?....:whistle:...repro..? :scared:

Mike
Long live..?...medium FL......yaaaay :clap: oh and reproed repro's too :D

[marc4darkskies]

Thanks a lot Greg!! Hey, I thought you were going to get that Baader a while ago? I'd love to see what the 180 would do with it!

I may give longer FL a rest for a while. I notice I haven't yet done much at the native FL of the TOA (1095mm with flattener).



Hey Jase - much appreciated!! Hadn't seriously considered entering that comp yet ... hmmmmm :confuse3:

BTW, this was the first image with my new Robofocus - what a difference that makes!!!!! Hassle free, reliable, consistent and remote focussing - woo-hoo!!!



:lol: Sorry mate, not into repros either! Well, not entirely true - I've quietly tweaked a couple of images as I picked up new tools & techniques - just haven't advertised them. Appreciate the comments though :thumbsup:

Cheers, Marcus

[jase]

Good to hear Marcus. Computer controlled focusing is one of those things that once you've experienced it, its hard to go back performing the task manually. If you're using FocusMax, do yourself a favour and get AcquireStar working. It will plate solve an image, search for the ideal magnitude star (don't want anything too bright as the FWHM will not be accurate), slew to desired star, perform the auto focus routine, then slew back to the target. In doing so you can refocus every 60min or sooner to counteract temp shifts. Of course you can configure the temperature compensation features if desired.

Do a quick test on your RGB filter set - watch the numbers between filters. Parfocal?

If you want to speed up focusing, just use the clear filter as the reference and using the numbers calculate offsets for the RGBHa etc. Many ways to improve the efficiencies in data acquistion...you've taken a step in the right direction.

[spearo]

Wow,
nothing to add to all the positive feedback you've already received
awesome shot
congratulations
frank

[marc4darkskies]

Thanks for the tips Jase. Yes I do use FocusMax. I've actually started using CCDAutopilot too to gather data & focus (using SkyStar). The focus star acquisition seems OK but sometimes initially it has a bit of trouble staying on the focus star - it seems to go wandering about sometimes (?) There must be some initialisation I'm not doing right because once it starts working, it keeps working. In any case CCDAP isn't an easy app to use, but it sure is powerful.

At the moment I'm focussing through the filters although I know with Ha that won't be possible. The Ha is definitely not parfocal.



Thanks a lot Frank! :thumbsup: All the nice feedback is very gratifying :)

Cheers, Marcus

[atalas]

Top shot ! awesome detail and color Marcus.

[RB]

Wonderful, just wonderful Marcus !!
Love the colour saturation and detail you've captured.

Excellent !

[marc4darkskies]

Thanks a lot Louie, Andrew - glad you liked it!! :)

Cheers, Marcus

[iceman]

Wow how did I miss this!? That's stunning! One of the best 4945's I've ever seen!

[marc4darkskies]

Thanks for that Mike - glad you liked it so much. :) I'm pretty pleased with it myself. I went for more colour data than I normally do and it made a big difference to the vibrancy of the image.

Cheers, Marcus