Another Sculptor

[Itchy]

Hi Everyone

Managed to sort out my guiding last night (finally):cool: . I have quadrupled my standard subexposure time to 2 minutes. I'm guiding manually so that's enough for now. At f4 I get a bit of skyglow at that length anyhow. Anyway here is the result:

NGC253 The Sculptor Galaxy:

http://users.bigpond.net.au/itchysastro/NGC253_05web.jpg

2 October 2005,Canon 300D, Meade LXD55 SN10, 24x120sec exposures at ISO1600, prime focus, manually guided.
Processing: ImagesPlus- Dark, Flat and Bias calibration, DDP. ABE- gradient removal, Photoshop CS- levels, curves. Noiseware- noise reduction per channel.

Comments more than welcome.

Cheers

[Striker]

Thats really Nice Tony....I like it.

[RB]

That's stunning Tony, especially since it's hand guided.
You are an insperation and I can't wait to try out your technique.

Cheers
:cool:

[asimov]

Well done Tony! :cool: Simply stunning mate! :D

[davidpretorius]

lovely work itchy...

what is the focal length of the canon at prime focus and mag do you get?

[Striker]

1016mm FL

[Itchy]

Thanks David.

Yep fl 1016mm. Magnification is not really the right term here as the image doesn't change size, but the chipsize determines what you can see. My field of view is approx 77x51 arc min. It's a bit wider than what I see through a 40mm EP which is 25 times mag.

Cheers

[davidpretorius]

Thanks Tony,

1016mm. Is that like a 40mm eyepiece, ie my 1250 f5 divide 40mm is 30 odd.

so 1250 divide 1016mm???

Will the toucam with a fl of aprox 5mm have more magnification than a canon at prime focus in the same scope?

[davidpretorius]

thanks tony and tony,

At prime focus, this little tony is starting to realize. So for you guys to do planets you need a 5 x televue?, but you get great detail, where as my toucam will already have a high mag, but less detail?

[Itchy]

Umm, I don't think so. My scope has a focal length of 1016mm. The camera doesn't use a lens at prime focus, so it doesn't have a focal length. Prime focus means that you are using the scope as a telephoto lens for your camera. As I said my field of view is slightly larger than what I see with my 40mm EP, so I guess you could say the magnification is about 20.



That will depend on the chip size as well, but I am sure it will have considerably more mag than prime focus. A 5mm ep would give me approx 200 times. Couple that with a small chip and you won't get to see much.

Someone else with a better grasp of optics than me may be able to help.
Cheers

[davidpretorius]

thanks again, maybe it is the good old toucam in prime focus mode with a $2 televue powermate 5x for planetary and a couple of extra bucks for the odd canon 300d or 20d for wide field of views!!!

[atalas]

:eyepop: nice work Tony !

Louie :thumbsup:

[Striker]

Thanks Louie....much appreciated...lol

[tornado33]

Gee thats a nice deep shot showing plenty of detail.
Scott

[fringe_dweller]

yet another amazing image of this galaxy!! nice Tony!
all these images of 253 has got me thinking back into my very foggy memory - I appear to recall from reading an article once in a mag I think?? that ngc 253 is one of a few? galaxies that you can observe/resolve (huge)stars visually, using a modest scope, that are in another galaxy other than our own (other than SN's) I seem to remember the Hamburger has some in its dark lane? I cant find any information with a quick search/google. Could someone please tell me if I am wrong, and if there is page/diagram that identifies those stars in 253 or any other galaxies. i seem to remember looking at them often?- but my memory has erased this info? Is there some viewable visually in the LMC and SMC as well I have also forgotten this info, I thought there was. My books are no help either. i always thought that was cool to view these extragalctic stars :) weird feeling!
Kearn
EDIT: I might answer myself here - I remembered the Dorado cluster in the Tarantula in the some others in the LMC now - its starting to come back to me LOL