Ok so Jase's Silver Coin was worth about $100,000, sitting proudly on display at the local museum.. My silver coin is a 5c coin that has been discarded, fallen down the back of the lounge, run over by a car and is now only barely recognisable as legal tender...
But it is my first image of a deep space galaxy! So I'm happy with it all the same
The main problems with my previous deep-space images were lack of exposure. I couldn't go longer than 30s with those without trailing, and I figured out that most of that was due to inproper balance of the scope/camera on the mount. For this image, balance still wasn't perfect but it was better than before and this image is made up of 90s exposures - which did have slight trailing (60s had very little) but (for me) it wasn't bad enough to detract from the image so I used them anyway.
It was also my first time controlling the camera remotely, via ImagesPlus Camera Control. I didn't use it for focusing or composition (yet), but that will come next. But it was nice to be able to set up a sequence of exposures and just watch it do its thing.
I didn't use ICNR for this image either. While packing up I took dark frames.
So, the image consists of 11x 90s exposures, and 9x 90s darks. No flats or anything else.
Saxon ED80 on EQ6, unguided.
Canon 350D, ISO1600.
The images were calibrated, aligned and stacked in DeepSkyStacker. I still need to work out how to use ImagesPlus for calibration. Post processing in photoshop was just curves, saturation and levels across the image as a whole. No masking or selective processing.
My composition is horrible. I needed to spend more time getting the galaxy composed in the frame properly, but I only had an hour outside and needed to start capturing photons!
Seeing was less than average, and transparency was horrible. No clouds, but a very light sky.
My main problems now are:
1. Still too noisy. I need to Avg the images (rather than Add), but to do that I need enough exposure. (also so I can use a lower ISO)
2. More exposure. I need to go longer than 90s. To do that I need more accurate polar alignment, balance, and ultimately of course auto-guiding.
3. More exposures. I need to spend more time on the object and take more exposures.
4. Composition. You can see why
5. Processing. Better calibration, better processing techniques. There must be more to deep space image processing than just levels and curves
Anyway, thanks for looking at my rusty 5c piece.