M83 Feb 20 GSO 12

kinetic (Steve) · #1 20-02-2009, 05:30 AM

Hi,

Just finished processing this, it's 5am and I'm
frozen solid!

Waiting for Comet Lulin this morning at 3am I decided to
try for a better Luminosity of M83 from my Jan 23 effort.
In between about 3/8ths cloud I got 215 good frames from 300.

Slightly sharper than the Jan23 result I think, but maybe focus
was a tad out.

Steve

spearo (Frank) · #2 20-02-2009, 06:24 AM

very good Steve,
I think you've got the focus spot on
looks great, incredible you get such results from such short exposures!
well done
frank

peter_4059 (Peter) · #3 20-02-2009, 07:19 AM

Steve,

As Frank says that's a great image. You've captured some amazing detail for 5 sec subs.

Peter

renormalised (Carl) · #4 20-02-2009, 10:58 AM

Great image there, Steve. It's a lot sharper than the previous image you did. Well framed....and you even managed to capture a background galaxy!!

renormalised (Carl) · #5 20-02-2009, 11:03 AM

I just noticed something. Get up from your computer and back off about 10 feet or so. Have a look at your piccie then. It looks even better from a distance!!!. I then came into about 5 feet from my screen and it still looked just as good. Seems moving away from the screen smooths out the background compared to the object.....makes it look better.

JohnG (John) · #6 20-02-2009, 11:23 AM

Nice going there Steve....

You can see the improvement with each session now, keep at it

Cheers

Hagar (Doug) · #7 20-02-2009, 12:03 PM

Really Nice Steve. You are certainly working the DSI very well. I wouldn't have believed you could get results like this with a DSI uncooled and such short exposures.

Well done.

Quark (Trevor) · #8 20-02-2009, 12:09 PM

I agree Steve, It is amazing how much detail you are capturing with such short exposures, you have some nice detail within the structure of the spiral arms but the core is washed out. I wonder if you could maybe, stack less frames for the core and make a mask for that region, to bring out more detail.

Don't think there is a lot wrong with your focus, as the faint background galaxy seems to be quite well resolved. I think you should be well pleased with this effort, but I am sure you will strive to do better.

Trevor

AlexN · #9 20-02-2009, 07:07 PM

F A N T A S T I C !

I love it mate! M83 is a favorite of mine, and that shot definitely shows it well!

Top Job!

Prickly · #10 20-02-2009, 08:16 PM

Thats very nice indeed. Does the DSI II pro use a cooling fan? Have seen them advertised lately.

I presume you have the GSO mounted on an equatorial mount?

A really nice image and not noisy. Obviously the cold did good things for the image and hopefully you have thawed out now.

Not that we can talk much here in Canberra!

Cheers
David

kinetic (Steve) · #11 20-02-2009, 08:24 PM

Thank you everyone for your comments,

Quote:

Originally Posted by Quark

... you have some nice detail within the structure of the spiral arms but the core is washed out. I wonder if you could maybe, stack less frames for the core and make a mask for that region, to bring out more detail.
Trevor

Thanks Trevor,
It's pretty hard dealing with the dynamic range stretch of a 5 sec stack but, having said that, I only really did the tweak concentrating on the spiral arms detail. The original FITS full dynamic range shows the core as a tiny dot, so it probably just needs me to tweak it properly!
No expert here.

Quote:

Originally Posted by renormalised

I just noticed something. Get up from your computer and back off about 10 feet or so. Have a look at your piccie then. It looks even better from a distance!!!. I then came into about 5 feet from my screen and it still looked just as good. Seems moving away from the screen smooths out the background compared to the object.....makes it look better.

Thanks Renormalised...do you have a first name please!

I tried that, I see what you mean. Cheers.

Steve

kinetic (Steve) · #12 20-02-2009, 08:57 PM

Hi David, cheers,

Quote:

Originally Posted by Prickly

Thats very nice indeed. Does the DSI II pro use a cooling fan? Have seen them advertised lately.

Not mine, but I think there is an aftermarket add-on.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Prickly

I presume you have the GSO mounted on an equatorial mount?

Yes David, here is a pic of my setup on the homemade GEM.
Note the DSI and filterwheel(homemade) at Prime focus.

Steve

AlexN · #13 20-02-2009, 09:06 PM

Yes Moggadapters have the Outback coolers for the DSI, Peltier + fan cooling... Judging by the noise (or lack there of) inherent in these pics, given the chilly weather I would think an add on cooler is rather unnescessary..

Prickly · #14 20-02-2009, 10:25 PM

I agree Alex.

That little bit of noise is nothing. A slight SGBNR in pixinsight LE would easily tidy it up if it you really wanted too.

Cheers
David

Ric · #15 21-02-2009, 08:12 AM

Lovely capture Steve, theres a lot of great detail in the spiral arms.

kinetic (Steve) · #16 21-02-2009, 09:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ric

Lovely capture Steve, theres a lot of great detail in the spiral arms.

Thanks Ric,

I had another look through the frame list today and handpicked the
clearest 112 of the better 215frames.
This brings the noise back up (more frames in a stack improves signal
to noise), but it survives unsharp mask sharpening and edge preserving
smooth a bit better.
I think it's a tad clearer(except for the noise).
EDIT: mag estimate courtesy Aladin sky server

Sorry about the unconventional North facing down presentation...I do
that a lot in my images

Steve

Kevnool (Kev) · #17 21-02-2009, 11:51 AM

Steve the detail in there is awesome...its Great......Cheers Kev.

Octane (Humayun) · #18 23-02-2009, 12:04 AM

Steve,

Well done on capturing so much detail in such short exposures.

I think the contrast boost in the reprocess works very, very well.

Regards,
Humayun