The Great Carver Galaxy - LHaRGB

[Addos (Adam)]

Took some high noise data from August and blended it with some lower noise data from the last couple of weeks.

Processing incredibly more difficult than narrowband! Yay moist air and light pollution! Havent traced the cause yet, but noticed my red sub stars came out slightly softer/larger than the rest and this made balancing the K and G type star colours a nightmare. Lots learned on this outing!

Approx 35hrs in all. Full acquisition info and higher res: https://www.astrobin.com/r9ph5g/

[TrevorW]

Nioce, great effort ;}

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

An excellent NGC 253 Adam, colour and detail and processing in general, all look top notch. Given the equipment and location, you can't want for much more on this target really, very nice work! It's discoverer gives you a big

Ps. Heck I was lying in bed, ready to retire for the evening, when I saw this on my phone aaaand I just had to get out of bed and take a look on a proper monitor...its good



Mike

[astroron (Ron)]

"Great Carver Galaxy" ?
Cheers

[RB (Andrew)]

Originally Posted by astroron

"Great Carver Galaxy" ?
Cheers

Mike Herschel discovered it Ron.

[AnakChan (Sean)]

Brilliantly done Adam. 35 hrs is very impressive!

[Retrograde (Pete)]

Very good Adam - great depth!

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Originally Posted by RB

Mike Herschel discovered it Ron.

Next to him right here scroll down...

Sorry for the slight digression Adam...but in my defence, Caroline Herschel is credited with the discovery of NGC 253 so it is not totally irrelevant to your image

Mike

[astroron (Ron)]

Originally Posted by RB

Mike Herschel discovered it Ron.

I know that Mike, Vis a Vis my question of the moniker
"Great Carver Galaxy"
In nearly 40 years in Astronomy and observing this galaxy
on multiple occasions and reading Numerous books and
documents, have Never heard of it being referred to in
this manner.
Cheers

[Addos (Adam)]

Thanks Trevor!


Gracias Mike! You read my mind. I did ponder going some more luminance frames but decided at my aperture I really wasnt going to get too much more detail Another vote for a big reflector at some point in the future I think Thank you for the ascent on the name



Thanks Sean and Pete! Getting the integration time was easy when it was spread over several months


Ron, the naming convention may be revealed if you scroll through the names of some of my other astrobin images

[Dave882 (David)]

Lovely image mate and huuuge effort on getting that kind of integration given our current weather. You get amazing detail out of your ‘small’ frac setup you could do some serious damage with a big newt lol

[marc4darkskies (Marcus)]

Don't care what you call it, you've got a very good 253 for such a small aperture, short FL scope Adam! Well done!

However, while I appreciate the highlighting of HII structures, I'm not a fan of over-emphasizing them. You get a poxy look that distracts from the beauty of the galaxy IMO. If this were my data, I'd de-emphasize them a bit and make the disk less blue. Just my humble opinion!

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Originally Posted by marc4darkskies

However, while I appreciate the highlighting of HII structures, I'm not a fan of over-emphasizing them. You get a poxy look that distracts from the beauty of the galaxy IMO. If this were my data, I'd de-emphasize them a bit and make the disk less blue. Just my humble opinion!

I do get what you are saying here Marcus and a less contrasting colouring would probably be a little more natural looking sure.. but funnily enough it was this very aspect that got me out of bed to check it out on a proper monitor It's not just another 253, it has punch and I quite like the emphasised HII regions, they look like spot fires in a galactic bush fire, which is kinda what they are

Mike

[marc4darkskies (Marcus)]

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

... less contrasting colouring would probably be a little more natural looking...

Yes, glad you agree. But it's Adam's choice. Like yours, mine is just another opinion.

[AdamJL]

Yeah this one's nice. I see what Marcus is saying... I do love punchy edits though, so that's my preference. But a more natural look would also work.

[Startrek (Martin)]

Adam,
Top marks for acquisition , processing and enormous effort
Detail is phenomenal
Maybe colour saturation a tad rich but that’s only my opinion
Well done !!

Martin

[Addos (Adam)]

Thanks Dave!! Yea the weather these last couple of years is true pain for astro. Been good for the garden at least Indeed, I look forward to the day I can see what damage I can do with a 10 inch newt!


Thanks Marcus! Yes this 'not quite' 5 inch frac continues to impress me. I'd love to angle it at some darker skies one day! This also can help explain some of the colour choices I made With the gradients from the light pollution, it left me with some tough choices on balancing background and foreground colours. Given my proclivity to narrowband imaging, and my big love of black and/or colour contrast in astro images it seemed like a natural outcome for me


I do get what you're saying about Ha adds in galaxy images, it can be a little too much sometimes. In my case, I subtracted quite a bit of the red from the Ha channel so as to preserve the yellowish core and blue spiral arms. I couldnt get a blend where the whole show didnt just come out pink This is also why I didnt add the Ha to my luminance layer - it pinked up the Ha regions even more


That said, I do quite like the blue bits and am pretty happy with how this one came out, especially with being able to use that high noise data from a couple of months ago.



Thanks Adam and Martin!

[AdamJL]

Congrats on the Top Pick

[Stephane]

I love seeing decent integration times combined with skillful processing. This is no exception. Well done! The Ha looks great.

[Ken]

very nice, just been processing this as well although only have a fraction of the imaging time that you put in.
Do you have any hints on blending the Ha to the red channel.
Clear skies Ken