[Startrek (Martin)]

Here’s my humble little image of NGC 1365 Great Barred Spiral Galaxy from B8 heavy light polluted Sydney Skies over the past week or so.
Captured over 3 half nights with a 25% waxing moon on the last night until late.
Same deal…,
8” f5 Klaus Helmerich Carbon Newt
Skywatcher EQ6-R pro mount
ZWO 2600MM Cooled to -10C , Gain 0
PHD2 Multistar guiding ( 0.50 to 0.65 arc sec )
EQMOD and Stellarium for Goto and tracking
APT for acquisition
Lum 510 x 30sec subs
Red 250 x 30sec subs
Green 250 x 30sec subs
Blue 240 x 30sec subs
Dithered every 3rd sub
Full calibration suite
Darks
Flats LRGB
Flat Darks LRGB
Total integration approx 10 hours
1250 x 30 sec subs !!!
Analysed , Calibrated and Stacked in ASTAP
Processed in Startools v1.8

Definitely not enough data to peg back the noise and expose more signal ( detail) I reckon 30 to 40 hours and we’re talking about some decent SNR (We just don’t get enough clear moonless nights in Sydney over 2 or 3 cycles, plus I have a limited view of the sky )
I had to turn down the gamma or background brightness to hide the gradient bomb. The signal is there but so is the noise.
At my B3 dark site down south I can push 180 sec Luminance subs and the background value of each sub is around 600 to 650 . In Sydney a 30 sec Luminance sub has a background value of around 1100 to 1200. Chalk and cheese.
I cropped the image so it wasn’t a tiny dot in the frame.
Anyway whinge over ……,

Thanks for looking

Comments welcome

Martin