My first galaxy (NGC253)

[Portmac]

Taken with 400d and 8" LX90 on the 12 Aug at about 1:30AM
4 x 120 sec at ISO 400
The conditions were very poor, windy, a lot of smoke and so much light polution.
But it's my first attempt at a galaxy so I am pleased with it

[mickoking]

Sweet image Portmac Thanks for sharing.

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

Nice scale for a DSLR!!!!
and an excellent job for your first Galaxy. Each and every Galaxy has different image settings coz they are all so different.

I also imaged 253 last night and we both picked up the nice detail in the core region

What made it so grainy though? I thought DSLR's took really clear images.

[Astroman (Andrew Wall)]

First off nice capture of the galaxy looks good.

Were you guiding during the process?

Grainyness could be due to the quality of the image because of poor seeing etc... Also depending on how warm the camera is, there could be lots of thermal noise in the image. More frames with better seeing will help clean it up.

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

I love it!

[browndog (Ian)]

Great image... That is a really nice attempt for your first galaxy.

The stars are nice and round, so you must have good tracking or guiding.
Can you give any information about your imaging setup?

[Ric]

A great first up capture, well done.

[Portmac]

I have the LX90 on a wedge and used some software to help polar align it, and even then it took several hours. My use of a compass is woeful and it did nothing but hinder the process...but I got there in the end
It was not guided, however I do have all the equipment necessary to guide. My first attempt at guiding was nasty so I decided I should probably learn one thing at a time, so unplugged it all and focused on the polar aligning side of things.

At the time the images were taken I was packing up as the wind was getting stronger and the smoke was very bad (the fire brigade was burning off that afternoon), I decided it was time to finish up.
So set the software to just take 4x120sec images and had the in camera noise reduction on, didn't bother doing any darks as I didn't expect to get anything in the pics and continued to pack up.

The temp was around the 12-13 degree mark and I also used an F6.3 focal reducer.

Now if the clouds would depart I would have another go at it..

[Dr Nick (Nick)]

I really love that galaxy and thats a great shot of it!

[Portmac]

Thanks for the comments

I ran it through Noiseware just because.....

[Dietmar]

very good job portmac!
the sculptor is a beutiful galaxy and you imaged it very well!
the colors are nailed, even though they might need a bit more data.
congrats!