NGC-300 A tough one!

[Garyh]

Hi all again,
Seems that a lot of us have been getting some nice clear nights..
The transparency up here lately has been magic but its a pitty the seeing hasn`t been so kind even though the jetstream maps look good the seeing has been on the poor side.
Decided to go for NGC-300 2 nights ago as being very dark and clear it would be good for a faint one.. Boy this thing is real faint and I really had to push everything hard as well as cleaning up the noise. I think I spent more time processing this one than the exposure time..
I am fairly pleased with the results though.
image is 12 x 5 min iso 800, stacked in Deepskystacker and processed in PS.
I did 20 images all together but due to some sort of flexure I usually end up with dark streaks that I find very hard to remove. So I stuck to only the best 12 which was easier to smooth over...I wish I could nail what is moving in this newt?

Anyways here it is and all comments most welcome..
cheers Gary
ps....I love all the faint fuzzies in this field!

[EzyStyles (Eric)]

niceeelyyy captured gary. i have tried to capture this object before, the surface area is just too dim. But you have certainly done it nicely. well done.

[iceman (Mike)]

Wow really nice Gary! Well done.

[Dennis]

A beautiful image Gary - well done. Nicely processed with lovely star colours too.

Cheers

Dennis

[h0ughy (David)]

nice one Gary. Could be the tube flexing with time and temperature. yep the surface brightness is dull

[Tamtarn]

Really well processed to bring out the detail on such a faint object Gary Nice smooth background as well.

Many have said it's a hard one to get right...Looks like you did it !!

[jase (Jason)]

Nice image Gary. Enjoy the composition presented. Interesting background colour noise, but doesn't detract from the image. Well done.

[Alchemy (Clive)]

Galaxies are so tough, if it were easy everyone would do it.
id like to try this one myself oneday.

[Ric]

A lovely image Gary, you've captured some great detail in that galaxy.

[erick (Eric)]

I like that image, Gary. many thanks. Just today I read, from the latest Oz Sky & Telescope, Les Dalrymple recommending this galaxy as a binocular target. I've marked it down for some future attention.

[Garyh]

Thankyou everyone for all your comments....

Originally Posted by EzyStyles

niceeelyyy captured gary. i have tried to capture this object before, the surface area is just too dim. But you have certainly done it nicely. well done.

cheers Eric..I would hate to try this from the burbs!..

Originally Posted by iceman

Wow really nice Gary! Well done.

thanks Mike...I wanted to image this last year but only did a few subs which were very disapointing....I did better this time..
cheers

Originally Posted by Dennis

A beautiful image Gary - well done. Nicely processed with lovely star colours too.

Cheers

Dennis

Thankyou for that Dennis..

Originally Posted by h0ughy

nice one Gary. Could be the tube flexing with time and temperature. yep the surface brightness is dull

Thanks Houghy, yeah I have suspected my tube or mirror cell is causing me this headache. Images stack ok but with this flex your noise isn`t totally cancelled out with residue also trailed out...makes it much more obvious!
thanks again...

Originally Posted by Tamtarn

Really well processed to bring out the detail on such a faint object Gary Nice smooth background as well.

Many have said it's a hard one to get right...Looks like you did it !!

Thanks Barb and David..always learning more all the time with this processing bussiness!!

Originally Posted by jase

Nice image Gary. Enjoy the composition presented. Interesting background colour noise, but doesn't detract from the image. Well done.

thanks Jase.....hopefully I can get rid of the noise more effectively when I fix that flex problem..as it is I get lovely red and dark streaks which are really anoying and hard to remove...short exposures are not so bad but 5min and over its a real pain..
Thanks again Jase..

Originally Posted by Alchemy

Galaxies are so tough, if it were easy everyone would do it.
id like to try this one myself oneday.

Thanks Mate.....I`m sure you would do a lovely job of it too as I have seen your galaxy post...
cheers Gary

Originally Posted by Ric

A lovely image Gary, you've captured some great detail in that galaxy.

Thanks Ric...I love galaxies..pitty most of them are too small for me to image well....It helps to try some challanging targets sometimes to push me procesing skills....

Originally Posted by erick

I like that image, Gary. many thanks. Just today I read, from the latest Oz Sky & Telescope, Les Dalrymple recommending this galaxy as a binocular target. I've marked it down for some future attention.

Thanks Erick for that.....I say you should have no probs seeing it in 10x50s or larger bino`s in a dark location, I could barely see it in my 50mm finder..barely..

Thanks again everyone for the comments...
cloudy here again so I can catch up on some sleep before the next clear patch comes along..
Cs everyone

[richardo (Rich)]

Hey Gaz,
an extremely tough object for sure.. very low surface brightness makes for long imaging times and compilations, not to mention long intervals at the computer.
Still, it's rather a unique galaxy in it's own right and definitely worth the effort.

Great job... looks great!

All the best
Rich