Ngc253

[desler]

My first attempt at the Sculptor galaxy from my light polluted backyard.

Eos 1000D through BDED120, 10 x 6 minute exposures, ISO 1600, 7 x darks and 8 flats, 20 bias frames. Guided by PHD with toucam through ED80 all on a EQ6 pro mount.

Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker and Levels, Colour balance, contrast stretch and crop in Gimp.

Comments appreciated.

Darren

[AlexN]

Good shot Darren. Looks like there is more in there that could be stretched out however.

Guiding and focus look spot on, and the colour within the central spiral looks good..

Nice work.

[spearo (Frank)]

Hi Darren
nice shot, well captured
my personal suggestions would be to crop if to center the nebula into the frame
and I agree, the data can be stretched a bit.
not 100% sure how its done with Gimp but see if you can get a histogram of the image, adjust the black point a tad to darken the blackground and push the midtones a bit to brighten up the nebula
(i just tried it out a bit in PS and it reveals more of the neb)

well done
frank

[Paul Haese]

This is pretty good and like Alex I reckon there is more data to be seen yet. Try using shadows and highlights in photoshop to see if there is more data there. Just adjust it to suit.

Looks quite sharp though.

[AlexN]

I hope you don't mind my doing so Darren, I had a quick play with your image in photoshop on my laptop here.. (which has the worst possible screen for astro image processing imaginable.) however it shows that the data is in there...

I used shadows and highlights to pull out some more of the galaxy.
Levels to adjust the black point after stretching with shadows and highlights.
I then used curves to give the brighter core of the galaxy a little more punch.
finally I cropped it down a little..

What you should be able to achieve with the raw unprocessed tiff should far surpass what I could do with a low resolution JPEG...

Best of luck with it mate, you have great data there!

Alex.

[desler]

Yes Alex, there does seem to be a lot more data there. I've just got out of practice with the processing, my wife thinks a little to much time bashing the toucam at planets!

I will have another go at the data over the next few days, Last night was really just a shakedown in preparation for Snake Valley next week, where Im hoping to pick the brains of some vastly more talented people than me.

Most of what I've learned is from trial and error and watching a few online tutorials. But I will get there!

Thanks also for the encouragement Paul and Spearo.

Darren

[AlexN]

No doubt, you're half way there, the data you've collected is VERY nice indeed. Just a bit more playing in photoshop is required... And I agree completely, there is no better place to learn than out in the field with other imagers around that you can hassle for information!

I did my initial learning like you, from reading online and trial and error... What I've learned from dark sky weekends spent with other imagers whilst imaging makes my internet learning and trial and error work pale in insignificance..

Have fun at Snake Valley mate.. I look forward to seeing what you come out with!

[rat156]

Hi Darren,

Was a good night here last night, tonight looks OK as well...

The pic looks fine to me, I'm imaging the same target last night and tonight, we can compare...

The data and resolution looks good to me, the colour balance is a bit off, but that can always be tweaked. The initial data has everything you need in there, you just have to take your time to tease it out in processing.

Cheers
Stuart

[Hagar (Doug)]

Thats not too bad at all Darren. Bring it along to Snake valley and we will have a bit of a play with the image and see what we can extract.