M83 - a cracker of a Saturday night in Brisbane!

[cybereye]

Hello everyone!!

Well it seems that every time I try to image a DSO I am beset with problems somewhere along the line. However, every now and then eveything comes together and works like a dream, and Saturday night was just one of those nights.

My target for the night was M83 and after adding a 1.25kg weight for when I image towards the east, my tracking was spot on (with some help from PHD!). My focus was good and my collimation was the best I've ever had, cross checked using both laser and Cheshire collimators.

For the first time ever I imaged for over 3 hours getting 3 hours and 10 minutes worth of data to play with - and didn't that make a difference! Using a QHY8L attached to an 8" f/6 Newtonian on a HEQ5 Pro mount I got 38 five minute subs. I used a Baader MPCC to compensate for coma and a Baader UHC-S filter to tame the light pollution.

Stacking was done in DSS with associated darks, flats and dark flats. Processing in StarTools and final tarting up in GIMP.

I'd say I'm happy with the result! :D

Cheers,
Mario

[jjjnettie]

:) well done Mario.
Isn't it a wonderful feeling when everything comes together like that.

[Ross G]

A beautiful photo Mario.

I love the composition.

You've got your equipment working so well.

Well done.

Ross.

[cybereye]

Jeanette, thank you for your kind thoughts about my image. As I said I'm very happy with this result and is something I've been aiming for since my effort last year. I'm not sure if you remember it but I was so disappointed with that effort that improving M83 was my goal for the past year. Silly I know, but I do like to set myself goals!



Ross, I'm glad you like the image and the composition. I had those two stars in the lower right that I want'ed to include in the image but also wanted to have M83 at a decent scale. The only way to achieve both was to off-centre M83. I did spend a bit of time moving the image around the frame until I was happy where everything sat.

As for my equipment - not only is it working so very well but the little additions that I've added, like clips to the side of the scope to hold cables in place and the small extra counter-weight, have all improved the rig. Considering I'm only 12kms from the heart of Australia's third largest city in the middle of suburbia, using a 8" reflector to do my imaging, I'm getting results that I'm very happy with.

And as a plus others are as well!! :D

Thanks once again Jeanette and Ross for your comments,

Mario

[naskies]

Nice work, Mario. I think there might be a slight red cast to your image (I'm viewing on a calibrated monitor)?

[cybereye]

Dave,

Thanks for the feedback on the image. I'm also on an Italian forum and people have said the same thing about the slight red cast to the image. I've taken the info on board and will be playing with the colours some time in the near future when I get a bit of time.

Cheers,
Mario