Sculptor Galaxy

[gregbradley]

I managed to get a clear night last Thurs night and got an image of the Sculptor Galaxy.

Only 2.5 hours but the Tak BRC is F5 and it packs in a lot of light pretty quickly which makes it ideal in weather that is biased towards showers and cloud.
.
FLI Microline 8300 at -40C (brrrrr) and Astronomik 50mm square filters in a FLI filter wheel.

I tested my Microline to see how cold it would go and it does 56.7C below ambient temperature.

LRGB 60 30 30 30.

http://upload.pbase.com/image/116322677

Greg.

[Paddy]

Very tasty indeed, Greg!

[AlexN]

Stunning as usual Greg! Sure shows more detail than what my 80mm could pull out of it! :D

[renormalised]

Great shot, Greg:D:D

[Octane]

Greg,

Oh, boy, that's nice.

Regards,
Humayun

[Hagar]

A bit like a Pizza with the lot. Very nice Greg.

[Ken]

Very nice Greg the colours look great, a barlow or similar lens at about F8 would be awsome.
clear skies Ken

[Dennis]

Hi Greg

Ahhhh, that is a most wonderful image indeed, simply fabulous. Just love the tiny galaxies in the background too!

Cheers

Dennis

[gregbradley]

Thanks Paddy. It does look like a pizza doesn't it.



It turned out better than I expected but I now have aperture fever!



Thanks for that.



Thanks Humayun. It is quite a bright galaxy. We are lucky with the number of excellent objects to image here. NGC6744 is high on the target list now.



A family sized Supreme I think.




I have an adapter that needs to be redone but is a work in progress to attach a Tak 1.6X extender to do just that. Not sure if it will work but
I hope it will.



Thanks Dennis. Its amazing isn't it how many galaxies a simple amateur scope can pick up. I imaged Mike's Grus Galaxy quartet also and the number of background galaxies is fantastic.

[RB]

Greg what a wonderful shot !
Lovely detail down to the core.

Well done my friend.

[g__day]

Wow

That's how the experts do it! When I grow up I want to image like you! :)

Matt

[atalas]

Hi Greg

Nice shot mate.

[sjastro]

Very nice Greg.

Perhaps you should crop it and also present a higher resolution version.
NGC 253 is big even for a BRC-250 at f/5.

Steven

[gregbradley]

Thanks Andrew.



That's funny Matt, the sort of joke I would make.



Thanks Louie



I think it would need more hours. I have other hours from other scopes and cameras. I think I'll try to combine them.

[marc4darkskies]

Very nice image Greg! :thumbsup:

Yep - 2.5 hrs isn't a lot for a galaxy image. Presumably you had to be pretty heavy handed with the noise reduction as a result?

Cheers, Marcus

[gregbradley]

Not really. F5 if is nice to image at if you travel plus 258mm aperture is "reasonably" large. It happens so much faster than F7 or F8. Not sure what the maths are on that scale but I believe each stop lower = 1/2 the time for exposure. So from F8 to F5 is at least 1/2 the exposure time needed perhaps less. I just looked it up from F5.6 to F8 you have half the exposure time needed so from F5 to F8 its probably 2.3X more time required for the same aperture.

But yeah 6 hours is a nice number even at F5 but the Sculptor is pretty bright.

I also have hours of 12.5 RCOS data and other Sculptor data I'll try to combine to see what that looks like. Probably got 8 hours worth or more.

Greg.

[renormalised]

Greg, this now requires some property to be had an Coona', and a 40" scope (take your pick...CDK, RCOS, OGS, TMB, APM....whichever takes your fancy), in order to satisfy one's fever!!!:eyepop::P:D:D

[gregbradley]

Hmmmm CDK17 then.

[danielsun]

Stunning Greg ! :thumbsup:
Nice work.



Cheers Daniel.

[gregbradley]

Thanks Daniel.

Greg.

[renormalised]

Too small....ask for a custom build:D:P:D

Win Lotto first, though:P:D:D

[gregbradley]

The BRC is quite heavy and a handful to mount let alone a 17inch. I imagine that would be a 2 man job.

Larger would need a crane!

[Lester]

Outstanding image Greg.

Thanks.

[renormalised]

Well, you're only going to put it up once:D:D:P

If it takes a crane, just think of the imaging possibilities:D:D

[gregbradley]

Thanks Lester.

Greg.

[rogerg]

Stunning, especially for such short exposure times.

[Paul K]

Beautiful image...

[gregbradley]

Yes I was surprised it was so bright. I often go for 6 hours on a galaxy.F5 is nice to image at.



Thanks Paul/