Ngc1365

[gregbradley]

I imaged NGC1365 earlier this year with a Tak BRC250.

I imaged it again the other night with a TEC180mm fluorite and a Tak 1.6X TOA extender giving F11.35 and 2016mm focal length. I was impressed with the extra performance and resolution this tak extender gave and it opens up better resolution and image scale for the TEC on typically small galaxy imaging.

I combined the 2 images together using Registar (what a fabulous program).

I have 2 versions - 1 is slightly wider field the other is cropped to highlight this wonderful southern galaxy.

NGC1365 LRGB 260 120 120 120 for 10 hours and 20 minutes total exposure time.

http://www.pbase.com/image/118673355 NGC1365 cropped


http://www.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/118673376 a bit wider field


Greg.

[dpastern]

Wonderful shot Greg - very smooth and tonnes of detail. It does look a really pretty galaxy. Well done.

Dave

[renormalised]

Excellent shot, Greg. The Tak extender is doing its job well. The image scale on both pics is impressive.

1365, I believe, would be an excellent target for Marc's C11/Hyperstar setup. It would be interesting to compare your images with those taken by Marc with his setup.

[Ken]

Well done plenty of detail in the arms of this small galaxy. I enjoyed your talk at IISAC.
Clear skies Ken

[Paul Haese]

Nice image Greg. Very bright and smooth. It is indeed an interesting target. My own current project and I hope to make mine as smooth.

[gregbradley]

It would be a nice target and a C11 has plenty of aperture to capture some photons.



Thanks Ken. I am glad you liked the talk.



Noise Ninja helps as does the blur tool. Sometimes there can be a bit of noise in the dim areas of the arms of galaxies. You may then need to do some selective sharpening as it can lose some detail.

[Octane]

Greg,

Wow, she's a bright one, isn't she!

Hey, where are those diffraction spikes coming from? They look like crop registration marks on prints. :)

Regards,
Humayun

[gregbradley]

Thanks Humuyan.

The spikes are from half the data which was captured with a Tak BRC250 which is an RC scope. The other half of the data was from my TEC180 which doesn't give diffraction spikes. I think this imaged is maxing out my gear and if I wanted more I have to go to larger aperture. Its nice to max it out though to see what its capable of.

[jase]

Good to see you're putting registar to good use with some composite images Greg. This one has come up quite well given the use of the extender.

[gregbradley]

Thanks Jase.

After a few years of imaging I have quite a collection of earlier data that can be added to the latest exposures. I was pleased the extender worked I wasn't sure it would come to focus but it did easily. It seemed to reduce star sizes as well - perhaps as per their marketing it performs well in the UV band.

Greg.