Messier 106

[RobF]

Please don't look too closely at this one. Learned the hard way you can't dither or filter out noise with only 2 subs each of RGB, but was feeling my way with the whole RGB thing through the QHY9 in May. This was one of my first objects at the SPSP, leaving me with only 3 Messier objects to shoot that are (theoretically :rolleyes:) visible from this latitude. Still, this did give me confidence to track longer subs for longer periods on latter objects at that star party with the QHY9 setup, and pleasing to get a bit of detail in the nucleus of the galaxy even if the colour is $#@! Cropped fairly heavily to compensate for poor flats and a stray object passing through a couple of frames.

I did in fact glimse M101 in a single frame one night between some low bushes, but alas failed to save the pic (was only a 20sec finder frame). Quite a few people thought I'd lost it I think when I said what I was doing with the scope down that low...:P
I WILL get it one day from Ron's when we finally get to see through the clouds autumn next year.....

Anyway, here's M106 - spiral galaxy in Canes Venatici
LRGB 20:10:10:10 all 5mins subs
QHY9 through the 8" with MPCC

Rest of my Messier work to date at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/UserRobF/MessierObjects102105Possible#

[bmitchell82]

Not a bad crack there rob, you really need to push those subs out to at least 10 min to start really capturing details.

Of course you already know your areas you want to improve, but good work on getting the qhy to start working the way it should.!

[renormalised]

Good try there:)

Even it would be low down from your location!!:)

[luigi]

I like it , the shape is clear!

[Alchemy]

At least you had a go..... And I have seen worse than this,

perpetual cloud here. Not even a chance to get 2 subs.

Clive:sadeyes:

[cybereye]

Looks good to me!! :)

Mario

[spearo]

its allright
you also see other faint fuzzies around it which is cool
frank

[davewaldo]

Good work Rob. :thumbsup: Will you be able to get any more data for this object?

I like the galaxy centre detail that is emerging. Do you use any special sharpening in there?

[davewaldo]

Love your Messier gallery too! Its given me lots of targets to aim for :)

[RobF]

Yeah - I did work with 10min subs for other objects later in the SPSP, but wanted to start off careful Brendan. I wouldn't have dared with the old guidescope, so your adaptor is definitely doing its work.:thumbsup: Much more than 10mins becomes a bit pointless with the newt though as the stars saturate with the QHY9s relatively low well depth.



Cheers Carl - I've had a lot of fun chasing the M objects down even when they are at silly altitudes off the horizon. Have learned a bit more about guiding too which gets a bit extreme that far over to the N




Thanks Luigi - I was pretty pleased all up considering the terrible signal to noise level for the RGB frames. Still, I feel I learned a bit about varying signal/noise levels you got from the different filters too - one thing to read about it, another to get some practical experience under your belt. Plenty to learn and explore in this new LRGB domain...



Thanks Clive - at least I can say I've checked it out - pretty decent size object compared to our Southern galaxies



Thanks for looking Mario :)



Yes - there's another nearby object I ended up cropping Frank - haven't looked up what it was, but the two of them in a single frame with decent exposures would be nice. Perhaps one day will get a chance a lot further north.



Thanks Dave - I think its a bit late in the year now. I didn't want to spend too much time on it as it was pretty low, but then again you often wish afterwards you had more time. One problem with having the CCD is you tend to want to go deeper, making it harder to explore more objects.

There's very little sharpening and noise reduction on this - the thing that brought out the centre detail was a couple of passes of the HDR (high dynamic range) wavelets in Pixinsight. The function is specifically designed to bring out distinguishing details across a wide brightness range - a little bit like using the Highlights slider in the Shadows/Highlights tool, but lots more sophisticated (probably a gross generalisation the PI guys might not agree with....:D). I haven't played with it a lot, but have seen people mention its good on galaxies so gave it a spin and happy with results.



I always have more fun with goals to chase down! Its nice to get off the beaten path sometimes rather than sticking to the brighter nebs....;). Astroplanner freeware is awesome for figuring out when these low objects will be visible (times and months of year).


Thanks everyone for looking....

[astroron]

Nice image there Rob, some nice detail in the center:thumbsup:
I had a look at your Messier page, some quite nice images there, But I notice that you have NGC 6350 for the third galaxy in the Leo Triplet, it should be NGC 3628.
Just a little quibble;)

[RobF]

D'oh! Thanks Ron - will hop to it and do some editing.....!
I'll be at Astrofest Wed night too now so may get to have a catch up as long time no see. Fingers crossed for weather.....

[Bender]

Another fine shot! Lets hope for clear skies at astrofest.

Martin

[multiweb]

Very nice. Great details in the galaxy body. :thumbsup:

[RobF]

Thank you Sir! "Our end" of the week looking a lot more user (weather) friendly now Martin - fingers crossed....



Thanks Marc - I hadn't quite grasped what a beast this galaxy was size wise (albeit cropped in a lot here). Nothing like "having a look" for yourself at something :)

[strongmanmike]

Gee that only gets to less than 8 deg above the horizon from Wiruna :eyepop: :screwy:..so that's a top shot Rob :thumbsup:

Mike

[RobF]

Thanks Mike. Hmmm - I do remember being too lazy to check the elevation, so the 30 degrees I recall from the night is obviously dodgey. Dec of M106 if 46deg and Wiruna lat is 33S, so you're right it was 10 degrees max. Guess that helps explain the colour a bit too :doh:

I do get a bit obsessive about chasing Messiers I haven't seen - even though probably sounds a bit crazy to drive SOUTH to get a chance to see this one Mike, I just don't get many opportunities to visit dark skies near Bris with low and dark N horizons. Probably also a testament to just how clear and dark the skies were at Wiruna.

I see I've also managed to flip this vertically somewhere in processing again. Have corrected orientation + elevation info on my website :rolleyes:

[strongmanmike]

Yeh my quick mental calc was working on Wiruna being at a dec of -35 (my latitude brain is still stuck in Canberra :lol:), still, M106 doesn't even quite make 10deg from Wiruna at culmination so as I said, a top result :thumbsup: