HMSTG195 Completed, NGC 4945 Work In Progress

[AlexN]

Last night was a real stunner in Brisbane.. I hope everyone was able to make good use of it!

I finally (1 month later) finished my HMSTG195 image..
Details:
Captured 25km from Brisbane CBD

Field centered around :
RA: 9hrs 37min
DEC: -49° 45'

Center of this FOV lies 9° 7" SE of Gum17 in Vela.

Image Scale : 2.32 Arc Seconds per Pixel
Field Of View : 96.7 x 128.5 Arc Minutes

Acquisition details.
LRGB (480:20:20:20) - 9 Hours Total Exposure.
All 5 minute subs, RGB binned 2x2..
15x5m darks (B1 and B2)
20 flats (B1 and B2)

Equipment:
TMB/LOMO 80mm F/6
ST8300M @ -10C
FLI CFW 2-7
Astrodon I series LRGB filters
HEQ5 Pro
QHY5 + OAG Guiding.

50% size ~ 3mb
Smaller image ~ 150kb


NGC4945 Luminance Work In Progress..

Currently Luminance only, I had hoped to have two clear nights in a row.. spend one and a half nights on the luminance, and spend the remaining half getting RGB data... Well.. It doesn't look too good for that so far..

What I have is 15x600s Lum shots Fully calibrated with darks and flats.. Might get some RGB in the wee hours of tomorrow morning but at this stage I think its unlikely.

I think the wide field view of the galaxy is both good and bad.. It definitely gives that feeling of floating out in space, but I think for galaxy work, wide field scopes really lack impact... Will add to this image in the coming weeks if the skies allow..

50% size ~ 1mb
Small image ~ 96kb

Cheers for looking..

[Bolts_Tweed (Mark)]

On ya mate. This gear is the go isnt it?

I particularly like the Vela dust image. Was planning to chase some dust myself tonight in Orion,

They look great mate - I have never had much luck with 4945 but it looks the goods there as well for you.

Hope you have some skies tonite down there as well.

Mark

Will emaill you ater (the Losmandy will be on its way to Deception Bay tommorrow night)

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Looking pretty good Alex

I think any object can be just as valid at several image scales, the mass of stars pock marked with little galaxies plus the main cigar of 4945 has an attraction of its own. Should look good once the colour has been added too.

The dust looks rather interesting and is probably a good sort of target for eyes with a little colour imbalance

Mike
BTW...how come you were only shooting at -10C

[mill (Martin)]

First image looking really good Alex with nice star colours and very sharp.
Second image already starting to show a lot of promise.
The second image would look really good with a scope with twice the focal length so the galaxy would take upa bit more real estate, but a galaxy floating like that in space has it's own charm

[AlexN]

Originally Posted by Bolts_Tweed

On ya mate. This gear is the go isnt it?

I particularly like the Vela dust image. Was planning to chase some dust myself tonight in Orion,

They look great mate - I have never had much luck with 4945 but it looks the goods there as well for you.

Hope you have some skies tonite down there as well.

Mark

Will emaill you ater (the Losmandy will be on its way to Deception Bay tommorrow night)

Not wrong mate.. The 8300 coupled with a quality refractor really cuts the mustard... I just cant wait till winter when the nights are colder and more importantly, longer!

Skies here have closed in... Its still "Possible" that it will clear, but I've called it and packed everything in.. Looks like a movie night for me tonight..

Originally Posted by mill

First image looking really good Alex with nice star colours and very sharp.
Second image already starting to show a lot of promise.
The second image would look really good with a scope with twice the focal length so the galaxy would take upa bit more real estate, but a galaxy floating like that in space has it's own charm

Thanks mate.. Personally I think it needs longer subs.... I pushed on with 5 minute subs due to local light pollution, however I would have been better off to push it out to 10 min subs and process out any pollution.. Live and learn I guess.. That said, I am happy with the result..

I agree 4945 would have more impact at 800~1000mm FL. I'm sure I can make something workable from this data.... At full resolution there are heaps of background galaxies.. Interesting enough from that perspective I suppose

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

Looking pretty good Alex

I think any object can be just as valid at several image scales, the mass of stars pock marked with little galaxies plus the main cigar of 4945 has an attraction of its own. Should look good once the colour has been added too.

The dust looks rather interesting and is probably a good sort of target for eyes with a little colour imbalance

Mike
BTW...how come you were only shooting at -10C

True... Nothing like a different perspective to make an area more interesting... I seem to recall a wide field galaxy cluster image recently that opened my eyes a little (and my jaw!)

The dusty image wasn't overly hard to process. Considering my eyesight, thats a good thing... All thanks are to Tom Davis I suppose... Wide field shots of random patches of dust are going to become more and more frequent from me this coming year... Interesting, rarely seen, colours I can discern haha..

Shooting at -10c because I was too cheap to buy the FLI ML8300 and too impatient to wait for the SBIG STX-8300.. It was at -10c @ 55% cooler load last night.. I'm sure it could have easily held -15c, but my dark library taken at the height of summer was taken at -10c... Coming into winter I'll re-shoot darks at -15c or -20c and image cooler during winter...



Cheers..
Alex.

[danielsun]

Beautiful image there Alex and 4945 is coming along nicely too, look forward to seeing the end result.
Nice work.

Cheers Daniel.

[gregbradley]

Nice job there Alex, looking good.

Greg.

[telecasterguru (Frank)]

Alex,

I like the images especially the first one. Real nice.

Frank

[telemarker (Keith)]

Sweet. Loads of detail and tight stars in both images. The gear is really delivering the goods.

[AlexN]

Cheers guys..

Daniel - I'll try to get some colour data next weekend (weather permitting) I think I'll leave it at the current 1hr 10min lum... it would be better with a few hours more, but given the FOV I think I'd rather not spend too much more time on it... 1hr worth of colour should finish it up nicely..

Greg - Cheers mate.. Deconvolution... Gotta love what it does for stars! CCDStack, whilst it was expensive, is the only bit of software that I've been purely amazed with the results... Well worth the cash.. Thanks for that tip last month mate! Sent me on a re-pro streak.. re-aligning Ha/OSC images, tightening up stars.. fantastic stuff!

Frank - Cheers mate, I tend to agree, the image of HMSTG195 is one of my favorites out of my own images.. I like the obscurity of it...

Kieth - Couldn't be happier with the new gear mate.. Its taken some getting used to, but its definitely doing its job well... Its just so damned heavy.. My focuser hates me.. The original focuser that was on the APO had about 3mm of sag with this setup, the 2" FT has less, but there is still some sag present... I am nearly at the point where I'm considering turning up an adapter at the correct length with a threaded end and just putting a FLI PDF focuser on the end of it... only has 0.2" of focus travel, but if all the spacers are the right length, that should be plenty to compensate for the different filters, and the setup should be rock solid... I don't want it to come to that.. But I do fear that's where it's headed..

[sjastro]

Nice work Alex.

Steven

[rat156]

Hi Alex,

Nice pictures. Personally I like the galaxy floating in space type image just as much as the closeups. It would be great to have two scopes and two cameras, one nice widefield and one for up close and personal, run them side by side on the G11...

WRT CCDStack, it is a great program, once you get used to it. Did you get the Block tutorials? I found they really helped. They can particularly help removing star artifacts. The process is quite simple really, you take a series of short exposures (20 secs or so) to just get the stars. You then remove the bright, stuffed up stars and sub back in the sum of the short exposures. I probably can't reveal the detail of how to do it without infringing on copyright.

Cheers
Stuart

[AlexN]

Thanks Steven and Stuart.

Stuart, I don't have the Block tutorials yet.. but I will be getting them. Star artifacts are one area that I do seem to need to address.. I'm always being lazy and imaging L and G at the same focus point, then R and B at the same point.. Meaning my L R G frames are all fairly well focused, and blue is ever so sligthly out, once you start stretching the data, you get blue halo's left right and center... I really need to stop being lazy in that respect..

I too want to image the same targets both short and long focal length, I will have my 2nd scope within the week, then give 4945 a shot at 1800mm F/L.. Should have a fair bit more impact then!

[TrevorW]

Lovely Alex nice colours

I must try 4945 myself it should come up nice at that scale in the RC

[AlexN]

Thanks Trevor, Yep the RC would do it justice Trev.. I tell you now, Sometimes I really regret selling my GSO RC...

[Octane (Humayun)]

Onya, Alex.

This is on my list of targets to image, as well.

What's the new toy you're getting?

H

[AlexN]

APM/Intes-Micro M703 Mak-Cass.. Great for lunar work, good for the planets, awesome for hunting galaxies, especially compared to a 80mm F/6 refractor anyways... 7" is more than enough aperture to chase dim galaxies, and 1800mm FL is a nice length... Might invest in the Intes 0.75 reducer too.. 7" F/7.5 with only 21% central obstruction.. Sounds yummy!

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Originally Posted by AlexN

APM/Intes-Micro M703 Mak-Cass.. Great for lunar work, good for the planets, awesome for hunting galaxies, especially compared to a 80mm F/6 refractor anyways... 7" is more than enough aperture to chase dim galaxies, and 1800mm FL is a nice length... Might invest in the Intes 0.75 reducer too.. 7" F/7.5 with only 21% central obstruction.. Sounds yummy!

aaaaalmost a 12" F5 Petzval...lets just call it stage one

[TrevorW]

Like to see it with the Intes will you have the G8 around the same time

[AlexN]

Mike - I've had a good think about it, even the 10" F/9 APO at 35k USD is ridiculous.. Forget that.. when for the same money you can have the Planewave CDK20... 20" F/6.8, with the 0.66 reducer ~ F/4.5 giving 2289mm FL, 0.49" per pixel. Add a mount to carry it at 18K USD and you're off and imaging with some serious hardware.. I love APO's, there is no questioning the quality... but 20" F/4.5 ready to image with a 52mm dead flat imaging circle, on a mount for $48,000 USD vs a 12" F/5 Petzval APO custom made, would have to be by LZOS/Takahashi who made it, so you're looking at easy 200,000 just for the scope, then a mount to carry it... Bah... Mirror power all the way... Honestly, I'd have a 12" F/3.8 newt over a 12" F/5 Petzval any day... You should come visit me in dream land.. Its fun.. although the fall back to reality sucks hard...

In reality - I'm thinking 12.5" CDK on PME or Losmandy Titan, keep using the ST8300 in it, looking at 25~28K AUD for the lot.. Even then, AT LEAST 12 months out.. Probably 2 years..

Should have the GM8 this week Trevor, and the M703 MAYBE late this week, probably early next week... The M703 will likely go onto the HEQ5 where as the TMB refractor will go onto the GM8 until I get the AN set up... The idea of manually pointing an 1800mm FL scope is a bit daunting.. The HEQ5's goto is flawless, so it can point the long scope, I'll just manually point the TMB at random patches of the milky way, lock the guiding on and expose the hell out of it..

Mwahahaha!! Two setups running concurrently! More toys than brain cells!