M83

casstony · #1 10-08-2018, 12:06 AM

This is my first go at a galaxy and it was getting low in the soup, but what are all the black spots through the image? Lens starting to dew up?

Image is 30 x 2 minutes, stacked and levels adjusted, FC100 f7.4 and Nikon D5600.

casstony · #2 10-08-2018, 12:51 AM

Had a play with contrast and saturation

xelasnave · #3 10-08-2018, 01:22 AM

Looks good Tony.
Alex

casstony · #4 10-08-2018, 10:14 AM

Thanks Alex

Seems like the bright nebulae and clusters are the easy targets for beginners.

I'm fairly certain the black spots are dew starting to form. I always check the lens when I'm finished and didn't see any, but I checked with a flashlight later and could see little moats around individual dust grains.

ChrisV (Chris) · #5 10-08-2018, 07:25 PM

Looking good Tony. Maybe its dust? Looks too contrasty for just dew, maybe.

casstony · #6 10-08-2018, 09:06 PM

Thanks Chris. I lost tracking for the last hour of the session and my dew heaters were set low, so I think it was dew starting to form on both the main scope and guide scope.

In any case I cleaned the objectives today and the dew heater will be set higher next time. There's an auto clean function on the d5600 set to work at start up.