NGC 4945 in Centaurus

[Octane]

All,

My first target at Snake Valley.

I was tempted to move to ten minute exposures but wasn't game at the time, so, opted for 5 minute exposures and *gasp, shock, horror* ISO-800. I won't be doing that again, and, indeed didn't for the rest of the star party.

I will re-do this once the STL-11000M arrives, or, if I get a chance to image before then, I will go at it with 10-minute exposures to try and bring out the stellar nurseries.

Read and view here (http://members.optusnet.com.au/mrozycka/Snake_Valley/Snake_Valley_20100313_NGC_4945.html ).

Comments, critique, etc., welcome.

Note: I fumbled my way in the dark and didn't put the cotton thread on orthogonally and have therefore ended up with the diffraction spikes as is. I rotated the image in Photoshop but it ended up being over 4-degrees out and as such too much of the image would have had to have been cropped. I just left them.

H

[iceman]

Lovely image, H. It feels like it's been a while since you've been out there.

The star field and star colours are beautiful. The galaxy itself feels a bit yellow to me but that's only a minor thing for me.

Very nice.

[desler]

H,

Your a very hard task master, The star field and Galaxy have detail galore! Guiding looks spot on and the colours just jump out at you!

My wife says the angle of the diffraction spikes fits with the framing and your target.

A very nice image indeed!

Darren

[mithrandir]

Ahhh....

Date: Saturday, August 13th, 2010

You've found that Tardis everyone is wants?

[Paddy]

Very nice. And I quite like the diffraction spikes at a bit of a tilt.

[gregbradley]

Fabulous image. Really well done.

Greg.

[multiweb]

Great details in the dust lanes. Lovely star colors too on the overall field. :thumbsup:

[Paul Haese]

H,
nice star colours but the galaxy looks overly orange to me. Maybe a slightly tigher crop would enhance the scale of the image.

I like the angle of the diffraction spikes.

A field flattener would also help make the image too.

Overall I really like the image but just some minor clean ups really.

[Lester]

Good to see another of your classy images Humayun.

IMO it may be over saturated, which is adding the yellow/orange colour to the galaxy, as the blue stars look very blue also. Having said that, I like it a lot.

All the best.

[SkyViking]

Wonderful image Humayun. I really like it. I would suspect the reddish colour of the galaxy is due to obscuring dust, being in Centaurus?

[erick]

Humayun, your location was more Snake Valley than Linton. If you want to be more specific you could say "Crystal Lake Cabins, near Snake Valley"! :D

That's a great start to the weekend's images!

[TrevorW]

Top shot H

[zipdrive]

Great capture! looking forward for the STL version:thumbsup:

[troypiggo]

Magical. I like the way you've retained the star colours. Great detail.

[strongmanmike]

What a lovely shot Humi, beautifuly framed and processed like a pro :thumbsup: I agree the spikes look perfectly fine.

NGC 4945 is a very dusty seyfert galaxy so should be pretty much this colour. I would still probably blue tweek it just a tad though...

Blue Mike :lol:

[DavidU]

Love the spikes, love the colors ,hurry up with the new CCD !
I'm sad I missed Snake Valley..........

[marc4darkskies]

A very beautiful image Humayun!! :thumbsup::thumbsup: Great framing and the colour looks good.

Cheers, Marcus

[Ric]

Very nice H.

I can't wait to see your images with the Sbig.

[danielsun]

Stunning image there H , just beautiful and love the spikes. :thumbsup:

Cheers Daniel.

[CoolhandJo]

Stunning really! The clarity of the image and the sharpness of the stars seems to be a signature of yours! :)

[Bassnut]

Sparkley as, excellent work there H, excellent detail and colour balance. Im waiting for St11 day, youll cream everything,

[mill]

That looks stunning Humayan, nice colours and good processing :thumbsup:

[Octane]

Mike,

You're not wrong -- it felt like an eternity! I needed an astrofix really badly and I got it.

Apparently, as it's a Seyfert galaxy, it is supposed to be a bit dusty yellow. I can easily up the luminance. I'll give it a go!

Thanks.



Darren,

Thanks, to you and your missus, mate!



Andrew,

Thanks for picking that up. Serves me right for copying old HTML files. In my defence, I did present all this on little sleep, so, it completely skipped my mind to update that!



Patrick,

Thanks, heaps!



Greg,

Appreciate it, cheers.



H

[Octane]

Marc,

Thanking you!



Paul,

Cheers. As mentioned to Mike, I'll increase the luminance and that should lift the galaxy a bit.

I'm not sure exactly which field flattener to purchase. I need to think of this quickly as it will be even worse on the STL-11000M. Can you recommend one?



Lester,

Thanks, mate. Looking back on it now, I could do with lowering the saturation on the stars.



Rolf,

Thanks! And, yep, due to it being a Seyfert, it's a bit dusty brown/orange.



Eric,

Thanks for that -- I've fixed that now and just left it at Snake Valley.



H

[Octane]

Trevor,

Cheers!



David,

Thanks, mate. I'm looking forward to it, too. I need more aperture, though, I suspect. This hobby is the world's worst moneypit!



Troy,

Thanks! It's something I'm paying more attention to now. In the past, I was a bit careless.



Mike,

That means a lot -- thank you.



David,

Thanks, mate!

I was wondering why you didn't turn up to Snake Valley. Perhaps in November?



H

[Octane]

Marc,

Thanks so much. I really appreciate that coming from you.



Ric,

Cheers. I'm looking forward to it, too!



Daniel,

Thanks, matey. Now, where's your efforts?!



Dr. Paul,

Cheers! I'm paying a lot more attention nowadays to my star fields. In the past I would have been inclined to leave them all bright and blobby and almost-white.



Fred,

Really appreciate your comment. I can't wait! I bet my first few are going to be cringeworthy as I get to grips with the new toy.



H

[Octane]

Martin,

Thanking you. Really appreciate that.



Thanks, one and all, for your critiques and comments.

H