finally finished my NGC 3521. taken with my AGO iDK 14.5 and PMX with a ML8300 subs were 10 mins each by 40:8:8:8 for a total of 12 hrs and 20 mins of exposure. if i had my time again i would either grab 20 min RGB data or bin it 2X2 because i struggled to get some colour in the outer dust region of this image but hey i am still learning. i haven't seen many people image this galaxy which is strange because it is so big and fantastically detailed. most of the time the outer dust is not shown so i really wanted to have ago at bringing that out, i think i achieved that somewhat successfully. going back over my last 3 images i have posted (M83, centaurus and M104) there seems to be a steady improvement in the quality, which is in no small part to a lot of people on these forums. thanks a heap.
if you want to see a higher res image, it will be on my FB page (see my signature).
I have to agree with you, your images have been getting better The stars and resolution look a lot better on this than the Sombrero.
I really should do more calculations when I am taking RGB (which I arguably don't do very often mind you) to get them closer to sky limited. I am thinking of going unbinned with the RGB to blend it in with the luminance as Rickas suggested in another thread. RGB 2x2 bin has done Ray pretty good so I guess either way works a treat.
I have to agree with you, your images have been getting better The stars and resolution look a lot better on this than the Sombrero.
I really should do more calculations when I am taking RGB (which I arguably don't do very often mind you) to get them closer to sky limited. I am thinking of going unbinned with the RGB to blend it in with the luminance as Rickas suggested in another thread. RGB 2x2 bin has done Ray pretty good so I guess either way works a treat.
Thanks Colin , given the lack of colour data I had to pump the saturation up on the colour image then blur it slightly to remove all the noise that introduced and rely on the Lum image for the detail. Deeper colour data would be better, besides I am way over sampling so binning would not be an issue resolution wise
Nice detail, Aidan. It's typical to need heavy noise reduction on the colour data but binning won't hurt (unless you want to beef up your luminance with the colour data.)
Nice detail, Aidan. It's typical to need heavy noise reduction on the colour data but binning won't hurt (unless you want to beef up your luminance with the colour data.)
Cheers,
Rick.
Thanks Rick. my seeing conditions are pretty damn bad, in the order of 4" FWHM so i am lucky to pick up the detail that i did. I have my next target in mind so i will try binning the colour and see how that helps, it is another galaxy with a bit of dust to it so hopefully i can tease out the colour.
Quote:
Originally Posted by raymo
You are hereby exiled to the main forum, and may only return as an
occasional visitor, provided you are accompanied by a member.
raymo
haha all right Ray, i will post in the lions den, TBH, i feel like this one is the first one that i could comfortably put in that forum. i am pretty happy with how it turned out but still a lot of improvement to be made in capture and processing techniques.
Aidan that's a winner for sure, love the dust clouds coming off the galaxy and there is so much detail in there.
No evidence of any tracking errors there either.
Cheers
Bill
Thanks Bill. the tracking seems to be much better at Dec = 0 deg and this is right on that line i just had to contend with bad seeing conditions, but i am learning how to best manage it. i am looking forward to when the clouds clear on Tuesday and i can start on the next target
hi Aidan,
cracking shot mate, congrats!
must feel great to get a solid result in after all the dramas.
looking forward to seeing more images from you, however, if you could throw some of your clear skies down this way that would be appreciated! I haven't imaged since Feb!!
Thanks Russell. i was really excited when i saw that i was able to tease out the background dust, definitely not expected. i have also been working on some post processing skills to try and make the most of the data.
the weather has been unbelievably good and i have to take advantage of it while i can. apart from tonight, it looks like i have another week of perfect weather. hopefully that will enable me to get 15 hours on my next target. my aim now is to make every image better than the last, focusing on what needs to be improved.
The stars and resolution look a lot better on this than the Sombrero.
