Beginnings of my August new moon projects.

[AlexN]

Possibly the past update. Here is 253 with12hrs total and 37 fresh darks taken with the cooling operating at 45% to reach -15c vs the old ones with the cooling at 83% to hit -15c

Much cleaner overall result. It's probably obvious from this image but I am pushing to reveal the dark dusty regions of 253 with this.

In some deeper images of 253 that I have seen the core of the galaxy seems to have dusty tendrils being ejected outwards (more likely dust being drawn inwards) around the core. I've done my best to show these, and I can see them in there however I feel to be really effective I would need to visit dark skies to run 10+ minute exposures.

[Slawomir (Suavi)]

Hi Alex,

You must be pleased with result of your perseverance with this project

As I understand it, dark skies is a must for imaging galaxies, so it would be interesting to compare what difference would it make to your photo.

I feel that processing of the latest version has been a tad too hard - I think it might pay off to reprocess this image one day.

[codemonkey (Lee)]

Nice work Alex! I think you could pull a bit more out of that with some more work.

Originally Posted by Slawomir

As I understand it, dark skies is a must for imaging galaxies, so it would be interesting to compare what difference would it make to your photo.

Having seen the raw data Alex is working with, it was enough for me to declare that I'd never move back to suburbia. I've only ever imaged in what I estimate to be Bortle 3 skies and the gradients he's dealing with here blew me away, not to mention the impact of light pollution on the signal.

So while dark skies might not be an absolute must, it's going to make it much, much more difficult for sure.

[Slawomir (Suavi)]

That's why I really admire Alex's perseverance and results he is getting.
I only ever imaged at what I estimate to be Bortle 7 at best, thus 3nm filters are the only way for me to enjoy this hobby...