M83 - repro

[Rigel003]

I captured this last Tuesday at Paul Haese's dark sky site and it's way better than my last version of this object. Thanks to Chris Venter for some processing tips and for recommending Adam Block's latest tutorials which have been really useful. I counted over 20 small galaxies in the background of the original full frame. I'd be interested in feedback about saturation and colour balance. It looks different on each of my three monitors at home.

larger full frame here (http://www.pbase.com/rigel003/image/142811167/original)

larger crop here (http://www.pbase.com/rigel003/image/142804914/original)
(http://www.pbase.com/rigel003/image/142811167/original)
Takahashi TSA-120 with flattener
Astro-Physics 900GTO mount
FLI Microline 8300 CCD camera
LRGB: 105,60,60,90 mins

[Paul Haese]

Nice work Graeme. Nice to see quality results from you. :thumbsup:

[batema]

That is a beautiful image. Well done.

[Peter.M]

I have been waiting all week for this one, It is beautiful Graeme.

[swannies1983]

Top effort that. Minor comment but you might want to work on the dark halos around some of the brighter stars though. Should be an easy fix :)

This galaxy will be my next project.

[DJ N]

Lovely image Graeme. Well done.


Cheers,

Daniel

[Lester]

Wonderful view Graeme. All the best.

[jjjnettie]

What a beautiful vista on the wider field image. :D

[cventer]

Awesome job. You got color balance spot on.

How many hours of processing did that take?

[astronobob]

Brilliant image Graeme, such detail in the dust lanes, well, all over actually : ) Have to be happy with that ! !

[Rigel003]

Thanks for the comments everyone.

[Rigel003]

Thanks Dan. Quite a few brighter stars have deep red halos which are often offset to the left. Not sure what's going on here. It might be poor aligning of RGB or maybe I need to deconvolve the red channel to reduce star sizes. Project for another day. I 'm not at all sure that it's an easy fix.

[Rigel003]

Thanks Chris. It did take a while. I tried your advice about balancing background and highlight levels in CCDStack before transferring to Photoshop. I also aligned Luminance and Colour frames but kept them separate for more tweaks in Photoshop before combining them.

[TheDecepticon]

Very nice mate.:)

One of the ones on my to do list too!

[swannies1983]

Hadn't really noticed the red halos (still learning the tricks of the trade though). I was referring to some of the brighter stars within the galaxy arms. A method that has worked for me is discussed in The Zone System for Astro Imaging. Basically you use the quick selection tool to select the star (including the halo region) and use curves to increase the brightness of the halo region.

[naskies]

Nice one, Graeme. I really like the wide field version - such a great view.

[Rigel003]

Thanks for the clarification, Dan. I think these are artifacts from sharpening the galaxy. I've used that method before so will give it a go. I've also noticed that the background is quite visibly noisy in the cropped version so will try to smooth this too. Repro coming up.

[Ross G]

A beautiful galaxy photo Graeme.

Great colour and detail.

Ross.

[multiweb]

Top shot indeed. Nailed the focus and colors. Beautiful. :thumbsup:

[Rigel003]

Thanks Ross and Marc. I've just done a minor repro, smoothing the background and doing some minor star repair. It's rewarding playing around with good data. Would love to have a slightly bigger scope for objects like this to reduce those star sizes.

[alpal]

That pic shows amazing sharpness &
you've gone deep with other galaxies showing.

I want to re-do my M83 now. :)

[iceman]

Beautiful result Graeme, incredible shot.

It's now IOTW (http://www.iceinspace.com.au).

[Rigel003]

Well that's a first. Thanks Mike.

[TheDecepticon]

Congrats on IOTW!:thumbsup::thumbsup:

[strongmanmike]

Well, always good to see a Sidonio (ie a repro :P) get Image of the Week...proves once again that reworks and repros can deffinitely be worth it sometimes :D

Very nice result Graeme

Mike

[Carl]

Great shot Graeme
Nice and sharp, and round stars to the edge.
You have some fine equipment there, great to see it put to good use.
Only one suggestion if i may, just be careful not to oversaturate colours in post processing; but then again if you love the richness in the colour who's to argue.

Well done hope to see more
Carl rainer

[Rigel003]

Thanks Mike. The trouble with Sidonioing is that you never know when to stop.

[Rigel003]

Thanks for the comments Carl. You're probably right about the saturation - a bit over the top and maybe a touch too much red and magenta. I feel like I can't trust the colour integrity of my monitor so was using the attached as a comparison. Robert Gendler's image processed from his own and HST and Subaru data. Maybe that's a bit intense too.

Sigh ...I can feel another Sidonio coming on and the image is only a few days old.

[Peter.M]

I like the saturation personally, congratulations on IOTW

[cjamo9]

wow!! thats amazing, i have a lot to learn from you lot

[Ross G]

Amazing galaxy photo Graeme.

Beautiful colours and details.

Congratulations.

Ross.

[venus]

Great image there:)

[Craig_L]

Ripper image Graeme. What suburb are you in? Light pollution doesn't seem a problem. Craig

[Rigel003]

Thanks for the comments Peter, Clinton, Ross and Lydia. Craig, I'm in Westbourne Park but took this from Clayton on Lake Alexandrina. My local skies are mag. 3.5 and limited to the brighter clusters and Ha images.

[Paul Haese]

Taken from my house, no light pollution there Craig, new moon the guys try to come down to dark skies.

Congrats Graeme on IOTW.

[Craig_L]

I'll have to start looking for a block down there. Long drive - but no street lights.:thumbsup:

[LucasB]

Really nice image Graeme! The galaxy looks fantastic!:thumbsup:
Lucas

[Jo41]

Unreal photo! .....I wish lol :)