NGC5128 - colour added

[allan gould]

Ive dragged out my 10" SCT and started to take an image with it of NGC5128 even though the moon is blazing away. It appears that the field of view is narrow enough that light pollutiuon doesn't seem to bother it. This was guided with a WO 72mm guide scope at 2500mm FL and f10 which all the experts say cant be done but Im happy with it.
Anyway I thought that some might be interested to see what a 15 yr old non-ACF Meade scope can do. The image is 40x10min subs stacked in DSS and processed in PS3 and represents the full frame from my QSI583.
Im hoping to get the colour tonight but they say it will rain.
Regards, Allan

[Jeffkop]

Some really nice detail in there Allan .. looks like the ole girls still got the goods.

[gregbradley]

I agree. very good detail in that.

Greg.

[peter_4059]

The detail in the dust is great. Well done.

[DJT]

There's some great detail in there..nicely done.

[alpal]

Wow - a nice image scale to really get the dust lane.
That will be great when it's finished.

[Ross G]

Good shot Allan.

Lots of high quality detail in there.

Good luck.

Ross.

[atalas]

Whoa!that's going to be a corker Al! hope you get the color for It soon...the detail in the core is awesome.

[jjjnettie]

so much detail in that dust, and depth. She's an old corker that scope of yours. :)

[ozstronomer]

Great image Allan, should look great with some RGB

[SkyViking]

Fantastic detail there, that'll look magnificent in colour.

[desler]

Yep Al, That's a keeper, If you get the colour just right, it will be a corker!


Darren

[alan meehan]

Some lovely detail in there Allan,you have done well
AL

[allan gould]

Thanks to all of you for the kind comments, guys. I really love this scope as its capable of good imaging from the suburbs and at a great focal length when the moon is about. It doesnt seem to have mirror flop or vignetting at all so I think I got a freak for the chips Im using.
Ill repost again when I get sufficient colour that Im happy with as at the moment Ive just started the RGB frames.
Allan

[Paul Haese]

Great detail in the dust lanes on this image. Star shapes are a little bit egg shaped in a few directions but a field flattener would take care of that. I know Meade does not make one of those, but given its products I would have thought they should. Looking forward to the colour being added.

[allan gould]

Managed to get out last night before the moon and clouds came in and got a few hours of colour with the QHY10 and melded this into the monochrome image that I had from my previous nights efforts.
Images were aligned and adjusted with Registar and adjusted in PS3
Comments welcomed.
Ive redone this colour image being more sympathetic to small colour differences and the integration of the luminance layer. I hope its better.

[ozstronomer]

Very nice Allan, there is an extra hint of nebulosity surrounding the outer edges which i've never seen before.

Makes for a great image

Cheers

[peter_4059]

That's worked out well Allan. How many hours all up?

[Paul Haese]

Nice processign Allan. Very smooth and lovely detail showing through. You have prompted me to put this on my redo list. My current version is a little over sharpened and does not have the finesse of this image. I like the dust lanes as that grey tone. I think that works better. The blue giant stars are showing through too.

[allan gould]

Thanks Geoff its much appreciated

Peter, its a combination of 6h40min luminance and 4hr of RGB in 10 min subs. The long subs have washed a bit of the star colour out but its the best I could do.


Im learning that the longer you have in integration time the easier it is to process - something you well know but Im still learning. I redid the colour integration as I felt I hadn't done the colour integration justice as it there are small areas of Ha red I had clumsily ignored. I hope this is an improvement and no more Sidonios.

[RickS]

Great work, Allan! The dust lanes are very detailed.

[allan gould]

Thanks Rick, much appreciated.

[SkyViking]

That looks stunning, I really like the detail and subtlety of this.

[alpal]

Excellent final result.
You could even work a bit on those stars to make them smaller
but who cares with a result like that.

[allan gould]

Thanks Rolf, I appreciate the comments.


I aggree they could be smaller but Im waiting for Louie's site to get back up again to see how to control stars better and maintain their colour.

[alpal]

There is another good video on star masks here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZlpDFsugYk

I wish Louie would get his site up & running again.

[strongmanmike]

Great result Allan, Cen A, in at least decent seeing, provides so much to see, it is a great galaxy to image huh? Good on you for resurrecting the SCT too. Actually it might be time for me to hammer her again I recon :question: :lol:...don't panic, I'll wait till I move back to Canberra I think, so your sanity is safe for a while yet :P :thumbsup:.

Mike

[allan gould]

Me too as I found them impressive but I didnt take notes at the time, but thanks for the youtube link.

[allan gould]

Thanks for the comments Mike. Ive imaged Cent A previously but seriously looking at some PI and PS methods now and Ive done a few extreme Sidonio's on it but getting a far better handle on the processing of my images now to make subtle changes which when all put together really lift the image especially acting against the light pollution and moonight.
And just for you is my final Sidonio attached

[strongmanmike]

Pour moi? :love2:

Looks great!

[allan gould]

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl :
Thats one cute dog. Yours?

[strongmanmike]

Nah mine's a man eater :eyepop:

Named Seti

[alpal]

Wow - the latest version has smaller stars & more of a highlight in the top of the dust lane.
There is nothing wrong with your processing skills. :)

[allan gould]

Looks more like Settee or Yeti :eyepop:


Thanks Al, its hard to know when to stop.

[atalas]

Looks great Allan!well done.

[allan gould]

Thanks Louie, your comments are much appreciated and I love what you are doing with that 66 in the desert. Keep it up.

[Alchemy]

A very nice bit of work, detailed but looking natural.

Any chance you might add a few hours of Ha to the mix, ive seen it done once or twice and it really gives it some punch, there's quite surprisingly a bit there to bring out.

Still a good shot regardless though.:)

[allan gould]

Clive
Thats a good suggestion. Ill give that a go but it looks as if the rain and clouds have set in at the moment for about a week so it may be a while.
Allan

[troypiggo]

Awesome Allan! The dust is coming through loud and clear!

[peter_4059]

That is looking better each repro Allan. I reckon you should repeat the exercise with your ED127 for comparison when the weather clears up.

[allan gould]

Thanks Troy

Peter, I've been looking at a heap of online videos on Photoshop and PI and applied a few procedures, but there are a lot more to try. I've found that small steps at a time work best but you know that already as your processing clearly shows.
May try the 127mm on 5128 and at the same time calibrate the focuser for filters and temperature compensation with Dave's new software.

[Poita]

I often use the internet wayback machine (http://archive.org/web/web.php) to find sites that have gone offline, the info is often archived there, or at least the links to content are, and you can often then find the content directly.

In this case the links still appear to be active.

http://atalas.businesscatalyst.com/Star_Repair_for_Photoshop.html
http://atalas.businesscatalyst.com/Noise_Reduction_Masks_for_Photoshop .html
http://atalas.businesscatalyst.com/Masks_for_Photoshop.html
http://atalas.businesscatalyst.com/Levels_and_Curves_for_Photoshop.htm l
http://atalas.businesscatalyst.com/Noisless_Color_for_Photoshop.html
http://atalas.businesscatalyst.com/Boosting_Star_Color_For_Photoshop.h tml
etc.

[allan gould]

Peter
Thanks so much for that. I used wayback machine for Louie's site but what I retrieved the links were inactive. Go figure!!!!
Anyway thanks so much for the links as its a great help.
Allan

[Poita]

Yes, the wayback machine didn't archive the data in the links, but the addresses for the links were still there. I just copied and pasted those and luckily they are still hosted even though the front page is gone.

[allan gould]

Thanks Peter as I picked up all of Louie's tutorials with the links given by waybackmachine. really useful.
Allan

[Rex]

Beautiful shot Allan of one of my favourite objects. Something to aspire to.