M33 C14 Hyperstar

[Dave882 (David)]

Last month I did 2 nights with the Hyperstar from the Sydney B6/7 backyard. One of the targets I hit was m33. It’s data I never thought I’d process for the simple reason that m33 is so low that I literally have to shoot through the timber lattice at the top of my side fence (even through the meridian). Buuuuut, with weeks of rain I thought I’d give it a go processing it, and out of the grand total of 1 times I’ve shot this target it’s by far the best I’ve ever done!!

Just for a comparison/laugh I thought I’d post the raw calibrated (yes calibrated) stack. Lots of LP gradient removal in APP, and liberal amounts of noise control were thrown at it with a heavy hand as you can see. Bit of a crop helped too.

Anyways- it’s not the prettiest rendition (and didn’t have my Hyperstar aligned well at all these sessions) but I don’t see many of these northern galaxies posted here and I’m getting sick of looking at clouds so here we are…

180x 60sec subs over 2nights
ASI2600mc
Guiding with guide scope & asi290mm
No filter
C14 Hyperstar f1.9
Eq8 pro
ASIAIR pro
APP

Thanks for looking

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

That's fan-bloody-tastic Dave! very worthwhile processing, actually a pretty good M33, well done dude

Great comparison to what you had to work with too, most would probably have given up then...

Sometimes I have had pretty crap data come down too and thought aaaah crap, this will be utter rubbish, I won't get a good image outa this ....only to sit down, persevere and come up with something actually not too bad. I recall having these feelings on all but one night (the Moon, cloud and seeing were all conspiring to ruin most of my data, or so it seemed) during the multiple nights of collection for THIS image ...go figure

Mike

[Stephane]

Wow, Dave you seriously cleaned up that stack and pulled out some incredible detail given the low altitude! There are some great targets up North, well worth imaging.

[multiweb (Marc)]

+1 That is awesome. Your field looks really good also for that type of optics. Kudos.

[Startrek (Martin)]

Dave,
Excellent result from just above the horizon
That big scope is capable of anything by the look of it
Well done !!

Clear tomorrow night in Sydney but the moons up just after midnight.Not to many Nebula around , there all descending in the west , unless you wait until the wee hours and catch the other end of the Milky Way with Orion rising ( Helix is still around though, all night ) Plenty of galaxies around but the Dark is at least 4 or 5 days away. I might give NGC 1365 a go tomorrow night with my little 6” ( 60 sec subs ) as it’s well placed at 10pm and doesn’t pass the meridian until 3am

That on line Light Pollution map (dated 2015) that most folk use as a reference has Padstow at Bortle 6/7 , I reckon it’s Bortle 7/8 now without a doubt. The Skyglow is Sydney is getting worse each year. Which makes your M33 image so much better IMO

Cheers
Martin

[Dave882 (David)]

Thanks guys I appreciate the comments!

Mike- it’s been hard to be too picky this last year with current sky conditions- guess at least it ain’t snowing here… Your shots are always top notch mate! I have to confess I usually search through the IIS archives for your imaging projects when I’m processing something to double check my colour balance and I haven’t done something silly with my process.

Cheers Stephane- yes it scrubbed up ok- the hardest bit was the shadow right through the middle of the galaxy (think that was the top bar of the fence) it was not possible to level that out completely without loosing detail but it’s not too noticeable. This and m31 are on my list to image properly from a darker location but it’s gotta be the right conditions or just not worth the trip.

Thanks Marc- yeah not toooo bad when the size is compressed down to 200kb- full size shows much more issues. A c14 @ F1.9 has its trade offs but when you’ve gotta go fast I reckon it’s hard to do better than that…

Thanks Martin- yep as far as versatility goes the c14 is currently my visual, planetary, deep sky and wide-field scope… she’s nudging 25yrs old but still a beautiful beast of a scope. I reckon when I’m pointing south I’m closer to b6 but to the north (into city lights) it’s definitely 7 at least. Yes I’ve got my eyes on Friday for some planetary imaging since the moons going to be quite big. Clear sky and good jet stream predictions but don’t want to say anything to jinx it!!

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Originally Posted by Dave882

yep as far as versatility goes the c14 is currently my visual, planetary, deep sky and wide-field scope… she’s nudging 25yrs old but still a beautiful beast of a scope.

Ah sigh...who didn't like to drool over the old C14 adverts?!!...the ultimate dream telescope...

Mike

[Anth10 (Anthony M)]

That sure is a cracking image Dave!
Very well processed and highly detailed structure.

…..Here comes the deluge in Melbourne right now-
⛈️

Anthony

[Dave882 (David)]

Thanks Anthony- yes m33 is such a beautiful target just a shame it doesn’t get above 25degrees for me. At 70x40arcmin it also huge too, I’d have to mosaic it to shoot this at f7 with my setup!

Aw Mike that’s a classic that! I mean who doesn’t enjoy dressing up in their Sunday-best do do some daytime observations . I’m very glad my setup doesn’t resemble how they originally designed these things! I’ve never tried to setup a scope this big on one of those old fork/wedge assemblies- I can only imagine how tricky that would be to get aligned!

[gregbradley]

The before and after is an amazing contrast.

The final image looks terrific.

Greg

[Dave882 (David)]

Originally Posted by gregbradley

The before and after is an amazing contrast.

The final image looks terrific.

Greg

Thanks Greg much appreciated. The gradient / LP removal tool in APP is extremely good and been an absolute lifesaver for me imaging from the suburbs!

[DarkArts]

That's a nice image. I'm impressed.

Now I feel guilty that not only is my C14 gathering dust at present, but I bought the Hypestar kit and have yet to use it. Sigh. Bloody rain.

[Dave882 (David)]

Originally Posted by DarkArts

That's a nice image. I'm impressed.

Now I feel guilty that not only is my C14 gathering dust at present, but I bought the Hypestar kit and have yet to use it. Sigh. Bloody rain.

Thanks mate. I’ve been loving the c14. I don’t get a huge amount of use out of the Hyperstar but it’s great to be able to hit some bigger targets (well relatively speaking). Only issue is Hyperstars are really fiddely to align and collimate so if you’re chopping and changing all the time it can feel like you’re constantly chasing your tail

[oska (John)]

Wow Dave, just wow! Is there anything you can't do?

[Dave882 (David)]

Originally Posted by oska

Wow Dave, just wow! Is there anything you can't do?

Lol thanks John… i think I just get bored easily…lucky there’s always something new down the rabbit hole