Ngc1365

[gregbradley]

I imaged NGC1365 earlier this year with a Tak BRC250.

I imaged it again the other night with a TEC180mm fluorite and a Tak 1.6X TOA extender giving F11.35 and 2016mm focal length. I was impressed with the extra performance and resolution this tak extender gave and it opens up better resolution and image scale for the TEC on typically small galaxy imaging.

I combined the 2 images together using Registar (what a fabulous program).

I have 2 versions - 1 is slightly wider field the other is cropped to highlight this wonderful southern galaxy.

NGC1365 LRGB 260 120 120 120 for 10 hours and 20 minutes total exposure time.

http://www.pbase.com/image/118673355 NGC1365 cropped


http://www.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/118673376 a bit wider field


Greg.

[dpastern (Dave Pastern)]

Wonderful shot Greg - very smooth and tonnes of detail. It does look a really pretty galaxy. Well done.

Dave

[renormalised (Carl)]

Excellent shot, Greg. The Tak extender is doing its job well. The image scale on both pics is impressive.

1365, I believe, would be an excellent target for Marc's C11/Hyperstar setup. It would be interesting to compare your images with those taken by Marc with his setup.

[Ken]

Well done plenty of detail in the arms of this small galaxy. I enjoyed your talk at IISAC.
Clear skies Ken

[Paul Haese]

Nice image Greg. Very bright and smooth. It is indeed an interesting target. My own current project and I hope to make mine as smooth.

[gregbradley]

Originally Posted by dpastern

Wonderful shot Greg - very smooth and tonnes of detail. It does look a really pretty galaxy. Well done.

Yes its a southern classic.

Dave

Originally Posted by renormalised

Excellent shot, Greg. The Tak extender is doing its job well. The image scale on both pics is impressive.

Yes I was rapt with the performance of the Tak extender. Takahashi rocks. It makes the TEC180 more versatile now as I can shoot at 2016mm focal length with improved correction. I also have a 4 inch Tak reducer which I will get an adapter for which will give me F5.25 at 180mm aperture which has a lot of potential for extremely high res wider field.

1365, I believe, would be an excellent target for Marc's C11/Hyperstar setup. It would be interesting to compare your images with those taken by Marc with his setup.

It would be a nice target and a C11 has plenty of aperture to capture some photons.

Originally Posted by Ken

Well done plenty of detail in the arms of this small galaxy. I enjoyed your talk at IISAC.
Clear skies Ken

Thanks Ken. I am glad you liked the talk.

Originally Posted by Paul Haese

Nice image Greg. Very bright and smooth. It is indeed an interesting target. My own current project and I hope to make mine as smooth.

Noise Ninja helps as does the blur tool. Sometimes there can be a bit of noise in the dim areas of the arms of galaxies. You may then need to do some selective sharpening as it can lose some detail.

[Octane (Humayun)]

Greg,

Wow, she's a bright one, isn't she!

Hey, where are those diffraction spikes coming from? They look like crop registration marks on prints.

Regards,
Humayun

[gregbradley]

Originally Posted by Octane

Greg,

Wow, she's a bright one, isn't she!

Hey, where are those diffraction spikes coming from? They look like crop registration marks on prints.

Regards,
Humayun

Thanks Humuyan.

The spikes are from half the data which was captured with a Tak BRC250 which is an RC scope. The other half of the data was from my TEC180 which doesn't give diffraction spikes. I think this imaged is maxing out my gear and if I wanted more I have to go to larger aperture. Its nice to max it out though to see what its capable of.

[jase (Jason)]

Good to see you're putting registar to good use with some composite images Greg. This one has come up quite well given the use of the extender.

[gregbradley]

Originally Posted by jase

Good to see you're putting registar to good use with some composite images Greg. This one has come up quite well given the use of the extender.

Thanks Jase.

After a few years of imaging I have quite a collection of earlier data that can be added to the latest exposures. I was pleased the extender worked I wasn't sure it would come to focus but it did easily. It seemed to reduce star sizes as well - perhaps as per their marketing it performs well in the UV band.

Greg.