Centaurus A from SPSP

[Retrograde (Pete)]

Hi all - my first 'real' galaxy shot. I suspect I've over-coloured it a tad

As I have no guiding capability on my mount I wasn't sure how 2-minute subs would turn out (as the longest I have managed previously have been 1 minute) but I managed to use 10 out of 15 in the final stack with a little rudimentary star fixing in the post processing.

ED102, unmodded Pentax K-5, 10 x 2 min subs (unguided) at ISO 2500

Astrobin link: http://www.astrobin.com/full/182929/0/

Thanks for looking!

[raymo]

Nice result Pete. It doesn't seem pin sharp, but I imagine that is because
you've had to enlarge it quite a bit owing to the shortish focal length of your scope. You should be able to get 3 minutes with good polar
alignment. Assuming that you are using your SP mount with no means of
doing an accurate P.A. I suppose you are having to do a drift align.
raymo

[Retrograde (Pete)]

Originally Posted by raymo

Nice result Pete. It doesn't seem pin sharp, but I imagine that is because
you've had to enlarge it quite a bit owing to the shortish focal length of your scope.

Thanks Raymo.
Yep not super sharp due to the size of the object in my little scope and possibly some minor tracking error. I did a pretty good drift align I think.
3 minute subs? Maybe next time

[Camelopardalis (Dunk)]

Nice one Pete, gonna need a bigger scope next

[Robert9 (Robert)]

Nice one Pete, especially well done without guiding. I don't mind the slight colour enhancement.

Robert

[Retrograde (Pete)]

Originally Posted by Camelopardalis

Nice one Pete, gonna need a bigger scope next

Thanks Dunk.
Actually first I need a bigger mount...THEN I can find a bigger scope to put on it.

Originally Posted by Robert9

Nice one Pete, especially well done without guiding. I don't mind the slight colour enhancement.

Robert

Thanks Robert.
The blue streak next to the dust lane at about 11:00 appears to be real as it appears in other photos.

[raymo]

I have been looking at that blue streak in many images of 5128. I notice
that it is either barely seen, or not seen at all, in images that are well
colour corrected. Images with a slight blue or green tinge[ like Pete's],
show it in various degrees.
raymo

[NeilW]

Nice shot....and good to see a K5 in action too

[Retrograde (Pete)]

Originally Posted by raymo

I have been looking at that blue streak in many images of 5128. I notice
that it is either barely seen, or not seen at all, in images that are well
colour corrected. Images with a slight blue or green tinge[ like Pete's],
show it in various degrees.
raymo

Mike Sidonio's excellent image of 5128 in the deep sky section shows this blue streak quite strongly and his looks well colour corrected to me.

There was a lot of blue and green in my image when it came out of DSS and despite my attempts to process some of it away a bit much of it remained.

Originally Posted by NeilW

Nice shot....and good to see a K5 in action too

Thanks Neil. Yep more power to us Pentax guys .
Cometcatcher on this forum does some great work with a Pentax K-5.

[raymo]

There's photos and there's photos. I imagine that Mike Sidonio's is
quite deep, and maybe that helps to bring it out.
raymo