M64 (Blackeye galaxy)

[RobF]

This was a couple of hours taken from 10Chain hill in June while waiting for another target to get into position. A fascinating galaxy, and pleased to have a bit of detail starting to come out in the core.

LRGB 42:9:12:15 (5x500sec Lum unbinned, 3xRGB binnedx2)
QHY9 through 8"/MPCC

[jjjnettie]

I'm loving the images you're putting out Rob.
They're bloody brilliant.

[Paul Haese]

Superb work. The full size image is very nice. Such smooth work.:thumbsup:

[Octane]

phw0ar! That is elite.

H

[jase]

Shiners sure hurt Rob, but the bruising on this guy has healed remarkably. The crop looks fantastic with hints of structure in the dust lane. Not over done and good colour balance. Great imaging. Well done.

[Leonardo70]

Hi Rob , great work ....

Leo

[peter_4059]

Nice work Rob. You've captured some nice detail there.

[Ric]

That's a beauty Rob, lovely detail.

Cheers

[Ross G]

A great galaxy photo Rob.

Beautiful, snooth tones.


Ross.

[gregbradley]

That's an excellent result. You really got a lot of detail there.

What alignment software are you using? There is evidence on some of the stars of colour misalignment of the subs. I find CCDstack CCDis plug in to be unbeatable for accurate alignments.

Greg.

[SkyViking]

That's a great image Rob, nice colours and processing.
I recall observing this galaxy visually many years ago and being fascinated with that dust lane. Thanks for the view.

[mill]

Never done this one before myself, it is on the list now.
Great work Rob.

[strongmanmike]

Ah Robbo, this is a cracker :thumbsup:

Lovely soft processing.... it looks like it is edible :lol:

Great result

Mike

[John Hothersall]

Knobbles of dust are beautifully caught with this small galaxy.

John.

[LucasB]

That is a top shot! Nice data capture and processing!:thumbsup:
Lucas

[RobF]

Thanks everyone for looking. It really is an interesting object. I thought the "black eye" came from the appearance, but I gather from Wikipedia and elsewhere it also relates to the theory this one was whammied by another galaxy quite some time ago, with enough disturbance some outer material is now counter-rotating.



Stop it, I'm blushing JJJ :thanx:



Thanks Paul!



Nah, not elite Humayun, but pleased to get right in close



I tried hard not to push too hard Jase, which I am frequently guilty of! I thought including the lum only might be of interest to some. Thanks!



Cheers Leo and thanks for looking



Really happy - thanks for that Peter



Thanks Ric :)



Thanks for that Ross



I've pondered this a bit on this one and other images Greg. I'm using Pixinsight, and it's certainly possible other software might come out differently. I'll have to have a look at CCDStack - always open to anything that helps.

I think ultimately what you're seeing here though is the effect of poor (actually a bit above average for me) tracking that has been mathematically averaged (median'ed). I'm frequently amazed how well PI combines down a series of subs where some are great and some average with oblong stars and ends up with (generally) very round stars. Nothing is perfect though, and I think the colour bleed you see is where the oblong stars on a particular colour haven't averaged out the same as the other filters. I left out a couple of smeared Lum frames that weren't up to scratch, but the colour frames were generally pretty good, however they were binned so less room for error.

Gosh I'd love to chuck the Newt on a PME just ONCE to see what is possible. Seeing, collimation, focuser scatter and all sorts of other things coming through here too of course....

EDIT: I guess this is what Ivo terms "the use of raw computing power to help overcome limitations of your current equipment and budget" :)





Go for it Martin! I think this one and the Sunflower galaxy are frequently overlooked by imagers down under.



Thanks so much Mike :D



Thanks John, appreciate that



Glad you enjoyed Lucas :)

[marco]

Very Nice Rob, I always liked this galaxy and u took a very nice picture of it!

Clear Skies
Marco

[iceman]

That's a really interesting galaxy, and you took an amazing shot of it. Beautiful work Rob!

[RobF]

Thanks Marco and Mike :)
Really appreciate your encouragement, and glad you found it an interesting one too.

[richardo]

Great going on this tough to get good detail on for us in the sthrn hem.. type object:D

Excellent result Rob!

Rich

[RobF]

Thanks Rich - I was genuinely surprised and happy to get some dust coming up in the lum. Bit of an eye opener that the rig can go a bit deeper on less mainstream objects. The "Sunflower" galaxy is another one I'll have to try in more detail next year.

You wouldn't believe it - this was an early image when I was learning to use CCD Commander and I found another single R, G and B image last night on my hard drive that had been named incorrectly. Not sure I can must the energy to reprocess it all for an extra 12mins in the RGB. I suspect I could conceal some more of the star colour bleeding if I chose my reference image for stacking more carefully too. Must be getting rusty. :)

[astroron]

Juat cought this one Rob :rolleyes: very nice image,surely one for your Messier Catalogue :D
Cheers :thumbsup:

[RobF]

Thanks Ron :)
Yes, I must put it in the album and put the old one in the "archives" for proterity.

[FranckiM06]

It is great work and so beautiful result.
Thank you for your excellent and beautiful image.
Franck

[Stevec35]

Excellent Rob! I would be more than happy with that.

Cheers

Steve