The Southern Pinwheel Galaxy (M83) in Hydra

[Octane]

All,

What a stunner of a galaxy.

Read and view here (http://members.optusnet.com.au/mrozycka/Snake_Valley/Snake_Valley_20100313_M83.html).

This one has been the most fun to work on by far.

Comments, critique, etc., most welcome.

H

[CoolhandJo]

Nice
Humayun! Your images are sooo flat fielded! The colours are very nice (including the star field). Question: when you take your flats how long are your exposures? I assume you put your camera in AV mode and possibly take about 30sec at the same ISO setting as the lights?

Nice work!:)

[TrevorW]

Great colours H very smooth

[desler]

Absolute Stunner H!


The stellar nurseries come up a treat and the stars are tight and round.
Lovely image! Can't wait to see what you do with the new toys your expecting.

Keep having fun!


Darren

[mill]

Nice one Humayun :thumbsup:
Can you post this one at a higher resolution please?

[duncan]

Hey H,
Post a bad one will ya!!!
I'M running out of words!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Nothing short of what we've come to expect from you.WELL DONE, Another beautiful image
ONYA MATE!!:thumbsup::lol::thumbsup:
Cheers,
Duncan

[Jeffkop]

Great effort H .. really top shelf .. looks like all the fun you had has paid off for sure.

[toryglen-boy]

OOOOOOoooooo ...... * !!!!

;)

[RobF]

If I didn't already know what a superb photographer you were Humayun I would be worried you'd faded in a hubble shot to get such a fantastic result! Just stunning. Thanks for showing.

Gosh you're going to be a force to be reckoned with armed with that SBIG!

[gregbradley]

Very nicely done.

Greg.

[seeker372011]

:thumbsup:very nice work humayun, got the h alpha stuff really popping

[troypiggo]

Awesome. Nothing else to say. :thumbsup:

[Martin Pugh]

An exceptional DSLR shot of M83, very well processed, with good natural colour.

well done
Martin

[h0ughy]

Nice work H, the galaxy looks fabulous.

The stars on the right towards the edge of the field are slighly egg shaped though. i found that was because the plane of the camera sensor was not quite true which was the focuser. I have a hotech adapter that i use in the 127 now even though i have the moonlight focuser, it centralises the camera very well.

[danielsun]

Stunning work there Captain. ;)

Cheers Daniel.

[Prickly]

Really great Humayun. You've done an excellent job.

David

[browndog]

What a great image.
This has set the bar pretty high for DSLR imaging.Certainly something to aspire to.
Well done on a great capture and processing.

[Lester]

Wow Humayun thanks for the view and give yourself a big pat on the back. The detail is outstanding, like a minature M33.

All the best.

[davidpretorius]

Always love your images H!

[ballaratdragons]

told you the skies were good here ;) :P

Beautiful image and very very good processing H. :thumbsup:

[telecasterguru]

H,

Are you using a flattener/reducer on your scope?

Great image.

Frank

[Ric]

That's a real beautiful image H.

I think the FOV is perfect, it gives M83 a real sense of perspective against the stars.

Top stuff

[JD2439975]

Glad you got into the astro side again H.
I'm a big fan of your terrestrial work & the astro is top notch too.
MORE!! :lol:

Justin

[dugnsuz]

That's lovely H
Sweet colour balance to the image.

Ach...I'm running out of positives to say about the amazing images you and others are producing of late! Suffice to say they are amazing to gaze upon!! A privilege! :)

Doug

[Jen]

:eyepop: awww well done H :thumbsup::thumbsup: Brings me such great joy as i watched you along the way taking these pics at SV ;) Wow the results are fantastic :D I LOVE IT..... hope you dont mind its my desktop image of the week :P

Keep em coming H your work is awsome :thumbsup::thumbsup:

[Tom Davis]

Gorgeous image H!! I love the FOV too!

Tom

[Paul Haese]

Lovely work. I think the colours are really nice but I would like to see the image cropped just a little to bring it closer.

[spearo]

Nice but you know what you need? a dedicated CCD camera
:]
the beauty of it is:
this is a great shot with nice colrs and and tracking
AND
you'll get to image it again in the weeks to come!
cant wait for comparison shots
Nice borders on the image by the way, its a variant that now gives a "lensing effect" sort-of feel to it!
well done

cheers
frank

[atalas]

H,this is looking great!got a bigger image to view?

[strongmanmike]

Humayun...you are the DSLR king.. :hi:

Only gripe is that I wish you would post larger versions :sadeyes:

:thumbsup:

[Octane]

Dr. Paul,

Cheers!

My flats are dependant upon what lightbox I'm using. The ones I used for these series of images was 1/30th of a second at ISO-100 (not at the ISO of the lights; the flats are independant of the light frame ISO value).



Trevor,

Thanks!



Darren,

Thanks, mate. I knew it would be a nice one as the sub-exposures were viewed after being downloaded. The guiding and tracking was working splendidly.



Martin,

Cheers. I'll get around to putting up a higher resolution image and link you to it.



Duncan,

Haha, thanks!

Hopefully more to come with the new CCD!



H

[Octane]

Jeff,

Thank you! It was a great camp, and, I look forward to returning in November (if I have enough annual leave!)



Duncan,

Glad you liked it!



Rob,

Oh, stop it, you! :blush:

The new beastie should be here this week!



Greg,

Cheers!



Narayan,

Glad you liked it! I was so surprised to see the hydrogen alpha regions in the sub-exposures. I think the 600-second exposures were a good balance between signal and noise.



H

[Octane]

Troy,

w00t! Glad you enjoyed it.



Martin,

Thanks, so much. Always great to receive praise from those who're masters of their craft!



David,

Cheers, mate.

You're 100% correct about the stars in the corners -- you've mentioned the Hotech to me before, too. I almost very nearly made an order for one before I dropped the big ones for the STL and Feathertouch. That problem should be gone, hopefully. If there's still egg-shaped stars, I will invest in a good flattener and that should hopefully take care of any residual nasties.



Daniel,

Cheers, mate!



David,

Thanks!



H

[Octane]

Ian,

I appreciate the compliment. Thank you.



Lester,

Cheers, matey. I look forward to redoing this with the CCD and once I'm back from holidays. Hopefully M83 will still be at a reasonable point in the sky and the weather holds true.



David,

Wow, glad to see you lurking! You always left me lovely comments on my images. Thanks!



Ken,

Oh, I didn't doubt it for a second! Thanks for keeping the sky clear for the whole time!



Frank,

Not yet. I need to find out what one to use. Any ideas?

Thanks!



H

[Octane]

Ric,

Thanking you. I'd love more aperture to get up-close-and-personal, but, at the same time, I don't mind having it dangling there prettily -- it gives context.



Justin,

Appreciate the kind words. Thank you!



Doug,

It was so much fun to process this one, the data was there, and the darks took care of the noise quite well. Helps having cold nights to work in! A far cry from the horrors of winter.

Thanks for the kind words.



Jen,

Onya! Where's your images from the last night?

Glad to hear it made it to your desktop!



Tom,

Thank you, sir!



H

[Octane]

Paul,

Cheers! I did think about cropping it, but, then, thought, meh, I'll leave it as it is. Something about it dangling there gets me. I will, however, post up a higher resolution image and link to it.



Frank,

:tonguepoke:! In a day or two, mate.

I hope my mount performs just as well as it did on the night I took this. Was really quite happy with the 600-second round stars. When the G-11's on song, she's on song!

The border for this is a slight variation on the norm. Works quite well, I think!



Louie,

Thank you, mate. I'll link you to a higher resolution image.



Mike,

Too kind, mate. Too kind. I'm a grasshopper, though!

As mentioned, I'll link you to a larger resolution image.



Thanks, again, all.

H