NGC 253 from BSG

[Hagar]

BSG started with wonderful skies but as usual with imaging everything that can go wrong saves itself for a star party then does.
My horror run started with some real connection issues and eventually turned out to be 2 of 3 USB cables faulty. Thanks Marc your lead got me going until I could get a new set of USB leads. Next, was just an odd series of events which have yet to be sorted although I think it is a G11 battery problem.

I ended up with 11 X 10 min Luminance images of which guider errors caused by the battery problem changing the mount to visual mode all by itself left me with just 6 usable subs.
RGB was similar with 10 X 10 minute of each colour but only 5 ended up usable.

The final image was very hard to get something usable and has taken hours to get this far. My appologies for the image before you look at this and others from me at BSG this year.

[multiweb]

Nice one Doug. Looks like this one was a favourite at BSG. Surprised there's any photons left in it. ;) Very nice rendition. Can't beat dark skies. :thumbsup:

[Octane]

Doug,

There's still some wonderful detail present in that effort.

Look forward to seeing more of your efforts.

I missed not being there.

H

[Hagar]

Thanks guys. I will have to have another go at this when I eventually get everything re set up at home and a new battery in the mount.
It's a wonderful target worthy of a big session.

Looks like my Robofocus controller is totally dead and needs replacement. Just another problem from the camp.

[TrevorW]

Nice Dougie but I'd deselect the central star for the diffraction spikes

Cheers

Trevor

[Hagar]

Thanks Trevor. Just saw that myself. I will have to fix it up. At least it's just done with star spikes pro. Easy fixed.

[jase]

Excellent rendition of this galaxy Doug. The diffraction spikes don't do it for me however. Still a fine image. Well done.

[Hagar]

Thanks Jase, Just a play with star spikes pro but I have now replaced it with the original.

[Ross G]

Despite the problems, you have produced a very good photo Doug.

Thanks.

Ross.

[Hagar]

Thanks Ross, I will be giving this one another try when the weather clears a bit.

[midnight]

That's still a very fine image Doug. Very promising and one can only think of what it may have turned out with all that data that could have been.

Darrin...

[Hagar]

Thanks Darrin, I do think it need quite a bit more exposure to show up detail like the surface jets etc.

[Stevec35]

Sorry to hear about your troubles Doug. It's still a good image though.

Cheers

Steve

[Hagar]

Thanks Steve. I have come to the conclusion that someone has some big problems at each and every star party. Over the years I have been fairly lucky and seen all my mates tear their hair out with problems of one kind or another and in this case I had a few varying problems to overcome. The bit that was anoying was I tested everything the night before and all was well then, with the best weather for BSG ever, it all turned to poop. I am still waiting for some of the parts I need to get everything back working properly, but getting there.

[Big Dave]

Good shot, good times.
Great colour mate, shame about the lack of images due to you gear. My turn next year for the dramas, I am Ditching the Starbook for a NexSXD. Learning curves ahead.

[Hagar]

Thanks Dave, I am quite happy to let someone else have the problems at the next star party I go to. I actually only ended up with about 7 hours of good data for 4 nights of solid imaging. Not Good at all.