NGC253 from Barambah!

[AlexN]

I love dark skies...

NGC-253
18x600sec subs. Calibrated with flats and darks.

I am posting both the full frame, and the 100% crop to show the detail...

I'm really happy with how this turned out, and rather amazed that the dust lanes were resolvable with my setup... I didnt think 80mm of aperture would get it.. but there it is..

I'm now wishing I'd spent more time on it..

Hah, funny story actually.. I did waste 70 minutes... I got the framing right, I used the subframe mode in MaximDL so it was only downloading a small area of the image to speed up the process... In any case, I set up my imaging run which was to be 12 light frames for that night to go with the 12 I had taken the night before.. I clicked start, then went for a walk down to the observing field and spent the next hour or so using Ron's 16" dob to have a visual squiz at a few things... I got back up to my rig to have a look at how things were going... I forgot to turn off sub frame mode.. :( 70 minutes of GOOD data, down the drain... I stopped the run, turned off subframe mode and proceeded to take 6x600sec images, bringing the total to 18 frames.. Haha... Lesson learnt I guess.. :)

Cheers for looking.

[batema]

Very nice indeed Alex. I'm imaging this as I type from my back yard at the Sunshine Coast and it is blowing a gale. Well done and look forward to more of your images.

Mark

[renormalised]

Nice shot, Alex, despite the stuff up:D:D

[gregbradley]

Ah yes the dreaded subframe box left checked! Almost as bad as forgetting to click the autosave box!


Nice result regardless.

Greg.

[AlexN]

Mark.. How did you fare on monday morning driving home? You must have been knackered! :) I've posted most of my other images already.. and am about to post my horse head! :) wooh!

Carl - Cheers mate.. It would have been nicer with 70minutes more data, but hey, life is imperfect..

[jjjnettie]

My newt is blowing in the wind.
Reckon I'm going to lose heaps of subs. Oh well.
Very nice image Alex.

[AlexN]

Thanks Greg and JJJ..

Mark and JJJ, I am jealous.. the sky is clear here, alas, I must retire to bed soon... no imaging for me tonight.. I havent even set up the mount again since I got home.. I've been rather slack... well.. Tired is the correct word perhaps. :)

[starlooker]

Very nice. :thumbsup:

[AlexN]

Thanks mate..

Hopefully I'll add another 6hrs to this shot this weekend... if this dust blows away!

[Buddman]

Very nice image Alex. I set up last night and redid NGC 300 after stuffing up my entire run at Barambah. You get that.

Adam

[AlexN]

Cheers Adam.. Looking forward to seeing your NGC300 mate! I want to have another crack at it, sooner or later.. and NGC 6744... both of which are TINY in my field of view though... mmm superwide field scopes can only get you so far... :(

[atalas]

Nice work Alex!

[peter_4059]

Great image Alex. The stars look nice and tight and there is plenty of details showing in the dust lanes. Shame you lost the initial data.

Peter

[AlexN]

Thanks Louie - Not quite up to the same standards as your image, however I hope to add a few more hours data to it this coming weekend.. should bring the detail level up a bit...

Peter, Cheers mate.. Yes it was really quite devastating getting back to the computer after 70 minutes to see that I'd been wasting time.. However, As I mentioned, I will add another 3~5hrs exposure this weekend and hopefully that will make up for it!

I noticed yesterday when perusing through the full sized image that I have captured quite a few distant background galaxies too.. I hope to be able to bring them out a bit better with added data... I counted 22 galaxies in the field thus far...

[Screwdriverone]

I must say Alex, your DSO stuff is accelerating in quality very well.

I know you have had a number of equipment changes in the past but I think the stabilising on the current gear has really shown off what you can do.

These, (and your recent HH) are simply superb!

Can't wait for the next one(s)

Top job!

Cheers

Chris

[AlexN]

Thanks Chris. Yea I spent a lot of time (and money) jumping from setup to setup looking for something that completely suited me and was producing the quality of images that I wanted... This setup has not let me down once.. Since getting this lot all together, I've taken exposures up to 30 minutes with perfect tracking, I've not lost a single exposure to a guide error, not lost exposures due to focus shift... I am really quite happy with this setup, and will stick with it for say, 6 months, then I do plan to move to a KAF-8300 based camera, either the FLI Microline 8300 or QHY9... This is only because my local light pollution is such that narrow band imaging is my best option.. However we'll have to wait and see what prices do in the coming months... Work is starting to pick up and im getting a fair bit of overtime at the moment too, so im saving my pennies.. Aside from the camera, the setup will remain unchanged.. oh, with the exception of a feather touch focuser and robofocus... just cause im lazy :D haha..

Thanks again for your kind words mate, I'm glad you've liked these recent images as much as I have...

[Screwdriverone]

Ha HA HA, you are incorrigible!

One minute you are saying the setup is GREAT, then are already thinking of flogging stuff off to buy the next best. YA TECHHEAD!

Worse than I am!

I will be keeping my eye on IceTrade for the next AlexN bargain though :whistle:

Cheers

Chris

[AlexN]

dont get me wrong mate.. the setup is great... But things can always be better. It will be a while away though... the new camera will be over 5k with a filter wheel and NB filters.. so its in the pipeline, but not soon :D