Found in the constellation Fornax, NGC1365, or The Great Barred Galaxy, is one of the largest galaxies known.
At 200,000 light years across it's about twice the size of the Milky Way.
It's approx 56 million light years away, and has a visual magnitude of 9.5.
NGC 1386 is over to the right, with a number of smaller galaxies in there as well.
I experimented with shorter exposures on this image. Normally I would take 300sec subs, and toss away quite a few due to satellite trails or guiding errors.
With this image I took 162 x 45sec subs. Two had guiding errors, and I told DSS to only use the best 95%. I'm quite happy with the result.
Details:
GSO 250 F4 reflector
SW AZ-EQ6
Baader MPCC3
Canon 1000D
ISO 800
Backyard EOS
Deep Sky Stacker
StarTools
152 x 45sec subs
Darks added, no flats
You certainly should be happy with the result! I would be!
I might have to follow your lead and try more, shorter subs. Might not work as well with Nikons (the APCC Canons are reputed to produce their best results at ISO 800, whereas the cheaper Nikons are definitely better at lower ISOs) but it's worth a try if results like this are possible.
Good job Kev; a few people use 3, 4, or even 500 short subs. I hope you
don't mind if I briefly reply to Chris.
I and others have found after extensive experience with Canons, that the budget level ones have a sweet spot of ISO 1600. The more short subs you stack, the quieter the final image becomes, but of course you won't capture the detail that long subs do. I have attached an image of 1365 that I took
early on in my digital AP which had no darks, flats, or bias frames.
40x 50secs @ ISO 1600. Unguided, hence elongated stars.
raymo
Nicely done! this and the sombrero are my 2 favourite galaxies. On the Canon point, my 600D was best in iso 400, 800 at a stretch.
on the satellite trails in images, what i do is a median stack on all my shots, that way, any stray satellite streaks and cosmic rays are completely eliminated rather than muted. if you use a mean stack, the high values of satellite trails will always impact the final product and when you try to stretch the data it can show up. just my 2 cents worth. i haven't used DSS in a while, i am not sure if they provide that option.
Hi Kev,
Very nicely done, I will have to have a go at this one. I use a Canon 1000D cooled to about 8 degrees at ISO 1600 and find that it works pretty well for me, I usually do exposures of 150SEC and as many as I can get. Followed by Flats and Darks. It will be an interesting challenge to see if I can drag this out of Melbourne's light pollution.
