Centaurus A - cringe - its 7 hours worth

[h0ughy]

A woefull result after 3 nights of imaging this is a poor 7 hours worth of photons of Centaurus A:sad:. I cant push it anymore as the light pollution has simply made the outer area extinct of data. A DSLR simply has its limits! I was going to image this for longer but after discussions with the Centaurus DEMIGOD i realsied that this will be an unachievable goal from the Doghouse unless there is a total power outage in newcastle at night for 3 days. Now whats the likelyhood of that?:confused2:

this is a crop form the full image size as i had noise from the AMP glow to remove as well. :(

Its horrible, nasty and probably could be processed slightly better, but without divine intervention this is as good as i can get my bucket of photons i have collected!:help:

Quite simply - light pollution sucks:P

[renormalised]

It does have quite a bit of detail but that background is noisy, and that's understandable...given the conditions and limitations you've had to put up with. Good shot, anyway:)

[multiweb]

It does but you can beat it. More exposures will increase your SNR and eventually you'll smooth everything out. It's a numbers game. Not impossible. :thumbsup:

[tornado33]

The extended halo of stars is just starting to show, so pretty good for a city location.
Scott

[gregbradley]

Its not too bad.

Galaxies are a tough target for light polluted areas though.

Greg.

[h0ughy]

thanks – but it is far from what I was hoping to achieve

So your saying keep at it and see if I can improve it?

Mate – your dreaming!! You must have eagle eyes ;) Scott it becomes an issue now of finding what works and what the limit is for the setup, thanks anyway for the hope?

I don’t Steve, you think if anyone said to you - hey I have done 7 hours worth of imaging you would assume that you would see a well defined and smooth image. I did push it hard and did say that – I will have to repro, but might hold off on that until I get more data?

Your too kind Greg. I am now realising how tough they are - well for that matter anything. Gees if I get really touched badly I could end up like Fred ;)

[Hagar]

Nice image David with lots of detail but even with LP I would have expected a bit more for 7 hours worth. This imaging game can be a mongrel where loads of exposure doesn't always mean the best image. To many variables.
Still it's a nice image David but I can understand your disappointment.

Keep at it Mate.

[multiweb]

Hell yeah. You'll probably put double or triple the integration time but the more you stack the better it'll get. :thumbsup: There's nothing you can't do from a light polluted sky that you can do at a dark site unless the sky count is higher than the the object you are trying to take a picture of.

[Paul Haese]

Every 16 or so frames you gain an image brightness increase, noise disappears and eventually a great image. This can be very tough through light pollution. Not prepared to deal this anymore myself. A good image all the same. Maybe a little soft on the focus perhaps.

[strongmanmike]

ZERO...? :(

Still a great effort from your new observatory

Save such projects for dark skies where the seemingly impossible can become a reality.

Michentaurus A :P

[DavidTrap]

I just hope my efforts will resemble your's David...

DT

[h0ughy]

thanks - youre quite correct far too many variables

ok i am currently doing another 2 hours worth at iso 800, if i am lucky i will try to squeeze in another hour on that - it is getting windy?

no Paul the focus was spot on - the seeing was the variable this time - was some thin cloud methinks

Michentaurus the great, please accept my humble apology but i simply cant let go of this


well i am one above zero so you should blitz it:lol:

[strongmanmike]

Fair enough, dog and a bone huh? :thumbsup:

[h0ughy]

yes lol.

[Tom Davis]

Great shot still!! Much better than I've ever done on this object.

Tom

[multiweb]

Agreed. Actually had a look at it again this morning and it's a top shot regardless of where it was taken. :thumbsup: More data will only make it better but it's already very good as it is. Details are sharp in the lane and you start seeing the oval halo around the galaxy. It think the whole gig's there.

[marc4darkskies]

WHAT are you on about David!!!! :shrug: Not perfect - sure, but a perfectly resepectable and worthy image!! :thumbsup: You should be proud of your effort. Nice colour, good detail given conditions and equipment, and nice round stars. Just go out and get yourself a mono CCD camera and you'll be laughing! :)

Cheers, Marcus

[h0ughy]

well i got just a tad more data last night and added it and badly processed it. so i got the count now to 11h and 11min. as you can see from the screen transfer function pushing it there is a significant difference, but it is way over processed. I think one day i may get there :rofl: but that day is way way way off;)

[multiweb]

Very good - getting there. Not that far off now. :thumbsup:

[Bassnut]

Youve gotten pretty deep there with the Halo size without much noise, top work David, and the detail is pretty good too.

Gaud, I just saw the repros, no Dave, not working, the original is better.