M33 from 10 Chain (and repro)

[RobF]

Last Sun night at 10 Chain Hill was a beautiful night, allowing me to chase after M33 for an extended period. Total imaging time around 2.5hrs (from twilight to M33 getting bit low). Wish I could have got some Ha too to play with, but weather is usually challenging this time of year, so happy to have had a decent go at all.

LRGB 65:23:28:35

Lum 13x300 secs unbinned
Red 7x200 secs binnedx2
Green 7x240 secs binnedx2
Blue 7x300 secs binnedx2

Usual QHY9/QHY filters/MPCC/8" Newt Rig

[RickS]

Well done, Rob!

[RobF]

Thanks Rick. :D
Sure was nice to get some fresh air too. Hope the concert went well.

[TheDecepticon]

No too bad!:thumbsup: Very pleasing image.:)

[midnight]

Very nice Rob. Some lovelly detail in there.

Darrin...

[bmitchell82]

Nice work rob, your starting to really step forward with that 8" beasty of yours! I cant wait till we start getting some reasonable weather over here in Perth :( Might have to find my way over to 10 chain hill one day :)

[RobF]

Hmm, I'm all over the place with this one. Just been trying alternative techniques, and happy to have regained faint detail, but messed up dust etc. :question:

[RobF]

Thanks guys - not quite happy I've nailed it though (as per 2nd dodgey effort). Still, there is a galaxy in these for sure :P



Seemed you had all the good weather for a long time though Brendan - shame lovely Perth is so far away - I'm sure you'd be most welcome :)

[jjjnettie]

I love your first rendition best Rob.
Gorgeous rich detail, great colours!! One of the best I've seen.

[davewaldo]

Awesome Rob, your efforts really pay off with top images!

[Tandum]

I didn't realize you where pointing north last week Rob. I thought you sat on M45 all night :P

Why the odd exposure times for RGB :confused2: Did you G2V those qhy filters?

[pmrid]

Wow. What else can you say? That is a real eye-popper.
Peter

[multiweb]

Great details. Nicely done. :thumbsup:

[RobF]

Thanks JJJ - worried I overcooked the brighter bits and last the outer halo. Not really enough data to show that well though I expect.



Thanks Dave - great to hear from you!



I did get more M45 Robin, but it took a while for it to get high enough, so started out on M33 for a few hours. Just so many goodies to choose from on a clear night this time of year. Wouldn't it be great if weather allowed a week-long Astrofest early Dec - sigh...

Re exposure times, I don't quite understand why, but I get most noise in blue (fair enough), then green, then red. I would have thought green should be best signal to noise as CCD most sensitive in that part of spectrum (but I guess most objects don't have much green in them). Anyway, the logic goes something like this - if I know I'll only have a few hours, which will be about 5-7 subs for each colour, then rather than manually select additional blue subs, its easier to bump up the exposure time so you're getting extra exposure time with each automatic cycle. Otherwise I always forget, or have gear trouble, or clouds come over BEFORE I get extra data in blue, etc. I'll have to rethink green. Toss up between keeping noise down and not having too much green in objects. I've had good success with this recipe through the LPS filter from the 'burbs, but it may be the low altitude of M33 has made the colour balance hard - I wouldn't normally even have a chance at the faint outer halo if not for Peter's rural skies. The more I read about G2V on the Pixinsight forums, the more inclined I am to colour balance in software. Bottom line, I'm still figuring out what works and makes me least dangerous :P



Thanks Peter for letting us hang out on "school night" :D



Helped cure astro-withdrawal a little too - cheers Mark

[ozstronomer]

Rob That's a brilliant shot ...well done:thumbsup: That was a cracker of a night, great to see the results from those dark skies

[adman]

good one rob, nice to see some good results from such a late night

Adam

[CoolhandJo]

Cracking detail on this galaxy. A real top shot! Well done.

[bmitchell82]

hehehe :D did we have the good weather or was i just making a silk purse from a sows ear? :D

Im thinking of heading up near newman in the middle of winter. 100% garenteed clear skies and still with unreal seeing! Up there for a week then ill see what i can get out of it.

BM

[RobF]

Thanks guys. I'm a sucker for this galaxy - just the right size for my FOV, so it always beckons this time of year if I'm lucky to get a nice sky. Brendan, fingers crossed for great skies both sides of Oz (although with wet season.....:()

I've had another go at tweaking what was bothering me in the processing by going back to master images. Pretty happy with this one for detail and colour balance.

[iceman]

Nice work Rob! I like the 2nd version the best.

[bmitchell82]

you have definately got the details and colour right, the only thing i find a little bit off is the brightness towards the center of the galaxy its the same if not a little bit less than the outer arms on my end.

[RobF]

Thanks Mike :)
Surprising how many variations are possible while you're putting these things together.



Hmm, I did use some HDR stuff from Pixinsight that can do that Brendan. David M would be frowning I haven't "respected the light" I guess. It is a fairly "flat" galaxy, but still nice to keep some of the central brightening too - point taken

[Ross G]

A great galaxy photo Rob.

I love the colour and detail.

Ross.

[RobF]

Thanks Ross, glad you enjoyed.
I certainly had lots of fun with this one :)