Galaxies at Wiruna

[Ross G]

Hello,

I got desperate for some imaging so I took a gamble and drove from Sydney to Wiruna on Thursday night.

I got lucky......a beautiful clear night with great seeing and very little dew. I stayed up till 5am.

I attached my 2x Powermate to my 110mm refractor and imaged The Leo Triplet for 200 minutes and then M83 for 240 minutes.

My camera was my new QHY8L ccd.

Attached are my initial processings.

What do you think.

Thanks for looking.

Ross.

[multiweb]

Love that M83 shot. Real sharp and top colors. Leo triplet color's came out real nice too. Gotta be happy with the trip. :thumbsup:

[Ross G]

Thanks Marc,

I thought about going on and off all day and finally at 1:30pm I threw everything in the car and zoomed off.

I got there at 5pm and quickly set up as it was getting dark. I was there all alone...there was just one other guy down at the "looking" field.
I was lucky. The seeing improved as the night progressed and there was a slight breeze that kept the dew away.
Apart from the computer locking up once, everything went without fault.
I am happy with the photos but I will process them more and experiment.
Using the 2x Powermate really makes me wish for a longer focal lenghth scope.....$$$$.


Ross.

[CoolhandJo]

Great stuff! Both are lovely. Well worth the effort (I think you could also turn up the colour saturtion to bring out even more of th great data you have captured there!) :)

[Ross G]

Hi Paul,

Thanks for the comments and advice.

I'll experiment with it in Photoshop.



Ross.

[astroron]

:hi: Ross,Very nice couple of images there:thumbsup:
You must be happy with your nights work:D
Cheers

[Ross G]

Thanks Ron.

Yes, I was very lucky on Thursday night. Usually, the opposite happens!


Ross.

[ozstronomer]

Both great shots Ross, the powermate was worked well.
Always great to image at a dark site, especially if the weather is on your side

[Ross G]

Thanks Geoff.

Yes, dark sites with clear skies is such a rarity here in Sydney.

I am pleased with how well the Powermate performs. The quality of the photos is much better than I expected.

It does, however, make me want a longer focal length scope.


Ross.

[gregbradley]

A man after my own heart. I was out imaging on Thurs night as well. Beautiful clear perfect seeing night. Gorgeous. I was at Bigga, probably about 120kms south of you.

Some great data there. Processing needs some work. The colour background noise is showing up too much. You can try noise filter in photoshop and push the colour noise slider over to suit (not too much or it will take away from colour in general).

You can also use levels and push the left black slider over to the right to just before the bell curve starts. Or a S shaped curve in curves.

Another technique is to make a duplicate layer and set it to "soft light" blending mode. Reduce opacity to suit as it will make the background too dark at first. Perhaps around 30%.

Also there is a technique to round out your stars using Photoshop if you are interested.

Greg.

[Hagar]

Very nice Ross, I am just wondering what has happened to the bright stars they have some strange difraction pattern which I can't make out. Do you have anything in the imaging train which would cause this pattern. It almost looks like an out of focus star taken with VC200L.

Otherwise the galaxies have come up a treat and look great. Well worth the effort.

[Ross G]

Hi Doug,

Thanks for your encouraging comments.

The strange diffraction patterns on the bright stars have always been there since I bought the telescope new about 3 years ago.
Do you think there could be something wrong?


Thanks.

Ross.

[Ross G]

Hi Greg,

Yes, I get desperate to image living in suburban Sydney, so I will often throw everything in the car and drive west to either Wiruna or Coonabarabran.
It's always a gamble, but when it pays off and you get a great night, the feeling is amazing!

Thanks for your Photoshop advice. I'm trying to learn as much as I can find on Photoshop processing so your hints are valuable and appreciated.

Although getting your photos praised is great, it's constructive and instructive comments like yours that make it worthwhile posting photos in this forum.


Thank you.


Ross.