A poor NGC1365

[Itchy]

Hi Everyone,

I imaged this very nice little galaxy the other night. Trouble was, I got lazy with my polar alignment and tried to compensate during manual guiding. Mental note: Don't do that again.:ashamed:

I also experimented with some newly aquired masking skills in Photoshop (using the K channel to create a selection mask to isolate the galaxy from the background).

22x120sec at ISO1600. Autoscaled master dark, flats, bias calibration in ImagesPlus Beta4A. Photoshop CS levels & curves, Noiseware.

Meade LXD55 SN10, stock Canon 300D, MPCC.

Comments welcome as usual

Cheers

[tornado33]

Thats a good image there, the galaxy really stands out from the sky background, plenty of detail too :)
Scott

[h0ughy]

Nice central part of that galaxy, and showing whisps on the outer fringe. also to the right slightly there is another galaxy?? or is that pixcel merging?

[RB]

That's still a great image itch.

Is ImagesPlus up to 4a beta? I thought the current version is 2.5?
:shrug:

[Itchy]

Thanks Guys,

Scott,
I think the masking using the K channel helped bring out the galaxy from the back ground. It wasn't easy, as the background was very noisy initially. Not enough exposure I suspect. I was hoping for a little more detail in the core of the galaxy, but my tracking problems have smuged it a little too much.

hOughy,
From early in the processing I was convinced that it is indeed a galaxy in the background, but I can't confirm.

Rocket Boy,
:doh: You are right, 2.5 is the current version. The correct title is ImagesPlus 2.75 beta 4a.

I might have another go at processing this one. Got a couple of things I want to try.

Cheers

[Itchy]

Hi Again

I reprocessed the 1365 image. This time I also used an Inverted blending technique before levels and curves. It seems to have helped. I think I also did a slightly better job of the colour correction.

Any comments?

[Robby]

Nice one Tony... Like the first one best though!
Plenty of detail there. Shame about the tracking though.

What is this you mention about the K-channel in Photoshop.. I've never heard of it. But it sounds like a cool method.

Cheers

[Striker]

Very nice Tony.

I too like your first....whole image is too red on my screen.

[RB]

Yep I like the first a bit better too.

*

[atalas]

Nice shot Tony , me like !

[ving]

for a poor shot its great :)
i'd be stoked to have that!

[seeker372011]

Yes to my eye the original processed image looks better-maybe because less noise is noticeable?nice shot anyway.

Are you familiar with star rounder-its a free plug in for PS that sometimes can help with pesky star trails

[Itchy]

Ok Ok

The first one is better.. :doh:

Thanks everyone for your kind comments.

Robby,

Using the K channel as a mask or a selection is something I've just picked up from Mick McCollough from ASNSW.

The idea is this: You duplicate your image and then convert the duplicate to CYMK mode. When you look at the K channel it is almost a luminance channel. You can make any adjustments you like to it and then click and drag it onto the original image. It then becomes an alpha channel on the original image. Ctrl-Click on the alpha channel turns it into a selection for a new adjustment layer. Very handy for isolating the object from the background so it can be processed differently without leaving horrible sharp changes in brightness.

;)

Cheers

[RB]

K channel sound cool Itchy.

Thanks for the info.