M16 and NGC 253 - 22 Aug 09

[AlexN]

second night with the new scope was quite a bit nicer than the first!

Tonight I managed to get quite a lot of data.. Heres what I've processed thus far..

M16 - 6x600sec

NGC253 - 24x300sec

Both these are crops, as they are fairly small targets with my super widefield scope!

I also have 15x600sec shots of the helix, however processing that is proving difficult... I will need a light pollution filter.. theres no doubt about that.

[Dennis]

Hi Alex

Really nice images, NGC253 is a standout for me, the proverbial island galaxy, afloat amidst a sea of Milky Way stars!

Cheers

Dennis

PS – looks like you had an all nighter!

[lesbehrens]

ngc 253 looks very nice.:thumbsup::eyepop:

[multiweb]

Tow very tidy shots Alex. Got any high-res anywhere? Nice work :thumbsup:

[TrevorW]

Likewise

the image scale for M16 probably doesn't do it justice try wacking a a barlow in there IMO

253 is well done

[renormalised]

Nicely done shots, Alex....even for such a small scope you're getting good detail in the wide field:D:D

[marki]

Looks to me like you are missing narrow field Alex :P. Nice shots by the way.


Mark

[AlexN]

M16 higher res here
(http://www.darkskyau.com/cm/displayimage.php?album=15&pos=20)
will capture another 6~7 10 Min subs tonight to try and get rid of some noise.

[AlexN]

All set up.. Ready to get some more M16 data to throw into the mix.. Hopefully with another hour of data I can pull out some of the fainter extensions!

[RobF]

Man that 253 is showing a lot of dark detail! It looks like you've deconvolved it and all sorts of black magic to get it so nice, but I suspect that's just great data Alex!?

[Lester]

The detail in NGC 253 is very nice. Good on ya Alex.

[AlexN]

Rob, I'm going to quote Greg Bradley when I say this, but when you've got good gear, it does all the work for you... The 253 shot has had no sharpening or other type of heavy processing done to it... captured frames, stacked them, stretched the data, played with levels a bit, cropped and posted it on the forums...

I'm really happy with the result, its my first time shooting 253, and I honestly didnt think a tiny little 80mm F/6 apo could get any detail at all... Happy to have proven myself wrong! :)

Lester : Cheers mate.

M16 images are running at the moment... got 2x600sec so far...

[TheDecepticon]

Nicely done, mate!! I like the Eagle and surrounding nebulosity.:thumbsup:

[AlexN]

Thanks, I too was happy with the outer extensions i was able to capture.. Tonight I got another 6x10min subs of the eagle, just taking some darks now, hopefully I'll post it later this evening with 2hrs data instead of 1.. :) Should make all the difference!

[Screwdriverone]

Wow Alex,

For crops, there is certainly still a lot of detail there. I like the Eagle Nebula colours and the quality is brilliant on both. Nice job!

Cheers

Chris

[dugnsuz]

Like them both Alex.
Not trying to labour the point, but the galaxy image shows the potential of the scope - very nice. You've done a great job on that one.
The pillars are well defined in the M16 too.
Where did you get the TMB 80?
Doug

[AlexN]

Thanks Chris and Doug...

Doug, yes, seeing as how its only a mere 80mm of aperture I was surprised to see such detail in 253. It definitely shows potential! Its an incredible optic... there is no doubt about that..

I got the TMB 80 2nd hand from a friend of mine. He was moving to a bigger APO and I'd told him months ago should he ever sell it, I would buy it. :) Lucky me I guess!

[Octane]

Alex,

I like the crop of the M16; it really shows how extended this object actually is. I know, most of us are used to seeing the pillars whenever M16 is mentioned, but, I enjoyed your presentation.

Just one thing, though, when I click on the higher resolution version, on my monitor, there is some blue in the image. Have you flat-fielded the image?

Regards,
Humayun

[AlexN]

Humayun, Thanks,

No i havent flat fielded the image.. I did however re-process the higher resolution image with some extra data I captured saturday night... the higher res image is actually 12x600 sec images using 12x600sec darks as well... I think the higher res image is much nicer.. The outer extensions of the nebula seem slightly less prominent, however there is much less noise involved and I think the overall colour balance is much better.. (to my tastes anyway..)

There is a slight blue cast through the star field... It may not be technically correct, however I do like the look of it....

Thanks for your comments mate..

[AlexN]

Err... Actually... here is the updated high res image

http://www.darkskyau.com/cm/displayimage.php?album=15&pos=20

Thats the one with a few improvements.. I will update the previous link in this thread too :)