I’ve been working on this project since January and finally gathered enough data to fashion some sort of image above all the heavy noise gradient . Every time the new moon comes around cloudy nights appear and then disappear when the moon’s up.
Another 8 or 10 hours would be great but clear new moon nights have been rare in the past 6 months. I just wanted to complete this project and move onto other targets.
Last time I imaged M83 was back in 2023.
Bortle 8 City Suburban location
New Moon period
Seeing conditions average to good
Telescope 8” f5 Klaus Helmerich Carbon Fibre ( Self Built ) focal length 1050mm.
Mount Skywatcher EQ6-R Pro
Imaging camera ZWO2600MM cooled to -10C , Gain 0 for LRGB and Gain 100 HCG for Ha
TS Optics GPU coma corrector with Beamtech 15mm spacing ring
Antlia LRGB and Ha 3nm filters
PHD2 Multistar guiding ( 0.40 to 0.50 arc sec total )
Orion 60mm guide scope with helical focuser
ZWO EFW 7 x 2”
ZWO EAF focuser
Tracking and Goto EQMOD and Stellarium
Aquisition and Capture , APT
Luminance 336 x 30sec dithered subs
Red 160 x 30sec dithered subs
Green 138 x 30sec dithered subs
Blue 149 x 30 sec dithered subs
Ha 61 x 2 min dithered subs
Full Calibration Suite
Darks from Library
Flats for LRGB and Ha
Flat Darks for LRGB and Ha
Total integration 8.5 hours
Subs reviewed in ASTAP
Data analysed, calibrated , stacked and aligned in ASTAP
Post processed in Startools version 1.8 via Compose module using Luminance / Color : L + Synthetic L from RGB , RGB.
Startools SV Deconvolution PSF module was used with default settings only.
NB: This image is presented as documentary astrophotography and does not use any AI enhanced or AI assisted technology during post processing.
Link to Astrobin for full resolution….,
https://www.astrobin.com/full/4vy31b/0/
Attached original frame and cropped frame versions
Thanks for Looking
Comments most welcome
Martin