|
NGC6744 my 3rd photo ever.
Had to post this lot before I played with it some more over the weekend. It surprised me to see the galaxy after stacking when a 5min exposure shows nothing at all. And no bright stars nearby to find it either without relying on the telescope mount to put the scope on target. Got some odd out-of round stars here... I'm happy to blame it on poor seeing. But maybe because I forgot to collimate the scope???
* Scope: Meade LX200 10"
* Imaging device: Canon EOS 450D
* Mount: Super wedge on tripod
* Guiding: Celestron Omni XLT 127 (5" SCT) with Orion Starshoot Autoguider and Meade f3.3 reducer.
* Exposure details: 9x5min light, then the clouds rolled in. And the first lot of 10 failed to download to the laptop. Problem with MaximDL...
* Stacking method: Sigma clip with 10x5min dark and 10x0min bias
* Summary of post processing:
Removed pedestal. Applied curves 3 times as a convex curve ( higher on the left and flat at the top right).
Kernel filtered with Gausian blur 1.5 pixels radius. (Removes grain in nebulas/galaxies spiral arms.
Saved as jpg 100% quality with manual stretch set to linear and using planet screen stretch and auto-stretch enabled. Planet stretch setting removes excess haze around the outlier fainter arms of the galaxy. Re-sized to 1024 in Photoshop for this post.
* Darkness of imaging site: Looking south from a northern suburb site in Adelaide. Cannot see the 5th star of the southern cross with naked eye. Lots of clouds about.
* Date(s) image taken: 8/7/2010.
|