M77

[Kal (Andrew)]

My first galaxy image!!

10" LX200R DSI PRO 22x15 seconds unguided alt/az

Stacked in registax and processed in photoshop

I took some other images tonight as well of the sculptor galaxy, I will process those tomorrow night and maybe stick it in here as well.

[stephenmcnelley]

Hi Kal, i personally love observing M77, and that is an image that shows the main feature details, thankyou.

I and no doubt others will look forward to your processing and posting of the big juicy 253 galaxy.

[Ric]

Great first image Kal, galaxies can be tricky as I have found out but you have captured that one very nicely.
With the DSI you could try extending your exposure time out to 20 seconds and capture some more detail in the arms.
I'm looking forward to seeing your Sculptor galaxy.

cheers

[Phil]

Great work Kal. Keep on posting then love to see some more

[spacezebra (Petra)]

Excellent capture of M77. The rotation in that fantastic - the gas clouds must be moving.

Im still on planets - working my way up to DSO's.

Cheers Petra

[Kal (Andrew)]

Well, I wake up this morning quite tired and I get another present. My Losmandy dovetail system and counterweights arrived! So next on the agenda is piggybacking my etx90 and seeing if I can use it to guide with. Hopefully I should be able to image this again with 30 second exposures now Ric, since unguided alt-az I was finding 15 seconds to be about the longest I could image before I was getting too many throw out frames due to trails.

[Kal (Andrew)]

Here is a processed image of the Sculptor galaxy that I also imaged last night. Poor framing unfortunately

22 images stacked, I *think* I had these at 30 seconds (I set it up and went inside for a while)

[Phil]

Good detail in there Kal

[Kal (Andrew)]

Guys I have a question. When using photoshop after stacking them in registax I noticed a seam line running from top right of the sculptor image to the bottom left. Is this from registax multiple alaignment process? I notice it more if I adjusted the levels harsher, but you can still just make it out in the image I posted. Is there any way to stop this from happening, or to help minimise it?

[Ric]

Hi Kal, great image of the Sculptor galaxy, it's showing good detail and clarity.

great stuff

[Rob_K]

Re the lines using MAPs, the Registax software developer had this to say:

RegiStax cuts images in segments during
multi-alignment processing. If these segments are - due to seeing
problems - stretched/compressed irregular the final stack might show
these artefacts. The "feather" option on the stacking page can reduce
these effects by "feathering" X pixels on either side of the joining
linges of the alignment-sections.


Cheers -

[Kal (Andrew)]

Sweet, thanks for that Rob. I'll have a play around with stacking it again and see how I go.

Thanks for the supportive comments as well everyone, much appreciated

[atalas]

Nice detail Kal,congrats on your first galaxy shots.

[spearo (Frank)]

Hi
well done!
re registax, with short exposure times like yours i suspect a single alignment point will suffice and might prevent the artifact discussed previously,
as you said, experiment with it all and see for yourself
wel done
and keep 'em coming1
cheers
frank

[Kal (Andrew)]

The feather option does help in reducing the lines, but I think you hit the nail on the head Frank. Lesson learned - don't make things more complicated than they need to be! Using single point alignment gets me the same results of multipoint alignment without the introduced problem of seams

[tornado33]

Great resolution in those images there. It will do well on globuylars and small planetaries too
Scott

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

A great first one Kal!
You must pat yourself on the back for that.

[spearo (Frank)]

glad to have been of help
cheers
frank