M83

[peter_4059 (Peter)]

I decided to devote a few hours to M83 this weekend as it was relatively well placed ahead of full moon. I ended up with 6.5 hours making this the most amount of data I've worked with. I ended up stacking the best 90% so this is 69x5min subs taken over two nights with the QHY8 and 10" newt.

Comments welcome!

[multiweb (Marc)]

Wow! That's terrific Peter! Sharp as. I'd be stoked with one like this. All those subs paid off.

[ozstronomer (Geoff)]

Peter

Great shot, that shows fine detail and very sharp... great work

[renormalised (Carl)]

Very fine detail in that shot. Nicely done, Peter

[h0ughy (David)]

nice work Peter - though with that amount of data i would have thought the image would have been slightly brighter. It is a great image and very subtle in its detail and finesse

[marc4darkskies (Marcus)]

I think you've got some nice data there Peter and, from what I can see, some good detail! With a bit more stretching you'll have a corker of an image!

Cheers, Marcus

[troypiggo (Troy)]

Very nice. Been noticing your images are very sharp, nice tight stars lately. Looks like the time spent on this one is worth it, too.

[RickS (Rick)]

Very nice, Peter! Are you taking subs from the city?

[oosh (Jason)]

Looks great Peter, the huge exposure times look worth it.

[peter_4059 (Peter)]

Originally Posted by multiweb

Wow! That's terrific Peter! Sharp as. I'd be stoked with one like this. All those subs paid off.

Thanks Marc. I'm usually too impatient to spend so long on a single object however with the full moon and my limited horizon here I didn't have many choices this weekend.

Originally Posted by ozstronomer

Peter

Great shot, that shows fine detail and very sharp... great work

Thanks Geoff. I've spent a lot of time (and cash) on getting that flexure under control and everything was behaving well this weekend. It would be nice to have it permanently set up in an obs so things were more reproducable.

Originally Posted by renormalised

Very fine detail in that shot. Nicely done, Peter

Thanks Carl.

Originally Posted by h0ughy

nice work Peter - though with that amount of data i would have thought the image would have been slightly brighter. It is a great image and very subtle in its detail and finesse

Cheers Dave. I'll have to see if it can take more stretching however I normally stop when the background noise starts showing up. It was taken under a full moon from the city so the S:N ratio suffered a bit.

Originally Posted by marc4darkskies

I think you've got some nice data there Peter and, from what I can see, some good detail! With a bit more stretching you'll have a corker of an image!

Cheers, Marcus

Thanks Marcus. I tend to hold back when the background noise starts looking noticable. Do you suggest stretching the entire image or use some form of layer masking?

Originally Posted by troypiggo

Very nice. Been noticing your images are very sharp, nice tight stars lately. Looks like the time spent on this one is worth it, too.

Thanks Troy. The conditions were quite good this weekend - quite a change on what we have had for the past 18 months. No dew on the primary certainly makes a huge difference.

Originally Posted by RickS

Very nice, Peter! Are you taking subs from the city?

Thanks Rick - yes from Ashgrove.

Originally Posted by oosh

Looks great Peter, the huge exposure times look worth it.

Cheers Jason. It certainly makes it easier to process when you have a lot of longer subs to play with.

[RickS (Rick)]

Originally Posted by peter_4059

Thanks Rick - yes from Ashgrove.

I haven't been at it for long, but I'm just up the road at St Lucia and it's a struggle to get decent DSO images from my driveway (which is the only place not completely smothered in trees). The brief periods out in the country are definitely worth it...

Cheers,
Rick.

[marc4darkskies (Marcus)]

Originally Posted by peter_4059

Thanks Marcus. I tend to hold back when the background noise starts looking noticable. Do you suggest stretching the entire image or use some form of layer masking?

If background noise is becoming a problem then do some dark sky noise reduction first - i.e. use an inverse layer mask to only work on the darker areas. Then stretch the whole image but preferentially stretch the middle portions of the histogram (i.e. a curve with a hump in the middle). It's hard to tell from the small version posted but yes, there comes a point when careful layer masking during stretching may be necessary.

[peter_4059 (Peter)]

Thanks for the tips Marcus. I'll give them a try.

[RobF (Rob)]

Congrats on a nice image for the longer imaging time Peter. Certainly makes more time spent exploring processing options worthwhile too when you've got great data to play with.

[peter_4059 (Peter)]

Thanks Rob. It has taken quite some time to get back into the processing routine after many months of bad weather. I've had a go at stretching this image further with some layer masking to keep the sky background noise under control. I think it's an improvement.

What do you think?

[allan gould]

Great image Peter and I love the repro as it has a bit more punch to it. Really well processed too.

[RobF (Rob)]

Yep, repro is really starting to do justice to it. Looking great.

[Ross G]

Great photo Peter.

Sharp and detailed and I love the subtle colours.



Thanks.


Ross.

[peter_4059 (Peter)]

Thanks Allan, Rob and Ross. It is definately worth taking another look with a fresh set of eyes. I must go back over some old data and try some repros.