Centaurus A from Wiruna

telecasterguru (Frank) · #1 19-05-2010, 06:08 PM

Centaurus A NGC 5128. Data taken at SPSP on Saturday night.
Processed with CCD Stack and curves and levels in PS.
L 4x600 6x300 R 2x300 B 2x300 G 2x300
GSO 10" RC on G11 guided with ED80 PHD captured by QHY9 using Nebulosity.

This is my first serious use of CCDstack and am very impressed.

I am slowly getting this rig to work but still a long way to go. Processing is the biggest learning curve but have decided that CCD Stack and Nebulosity is going to be it.

Thanks

Frank

multiweb (Marc) · #2 19-05-2010, 06:14 PM

Great shot Frank. Gotta be happy with that first light.

Here's something you can try. Use the dust and scratches filter in PS with 1px setting. That'll get rid of all the little white dots. If you want to get a bit more sharpness from CCD Stack use a positive constraint deconvolution 35 iterations and you'll see those dust lanes pop right out of the image. Congrats on a job well done. Gorgeous colors

DavidU (Dave) · #3 19-05-2010, 06:23 PM

Frank, I have been looking forward to an image with the big RC.
Well done

gregbradley · #4 19-05-2010, 06:53 PM

Nice first image (actually very nice for a first image my God) but your focus is considerably off. Do you have an electronic focuser? The good news is as you have a carbon fibre setup the focus point should be the same night after night.

FocusMax is a free program for focus. I use CCDSoft and it plots a graph
and you simply adjust it to keep the graph rising and then you go past it and it starts to decline and you take it back to the high point.

Greg.

Omaroo (Chris Malikoff) · #5 19-05-2010, 07:34 PM

A really excellent first light Frank - congrats.

Looks like the RC is performing well for you, so onward and upward!

telecasterguru (Frank) · #6 19-05-2010, 08:09 PM

Marc,

Thanks for the advice. This obviously is a learning curve image and a very basic LRGB combination attempt. I have lots of questions on the processing side of things and deconvolution is one of them.

Dave,

I am so glad to have the rig up and running at last and getting data is fantastic, thanks.

Greg,

I used a bahtinov mask to focus and checked it a couple of times in the imaging run and it said it was perfect every time. The scope still has the original focuser on it and I think a Feathertouch or Moonlight may make a big difference. That is one of the next moves. Nebulosity has a fine focus function but I have not come to terms with it yet. I am not even sure that it works with a QHY9. I tried a couple of times but with no success.

Chris,

I always thought that the 10" RC should be OK after a lot of the bugs of the original 8" OTAs had been sorted. I am very happy with it (until the 16" comes out).

Frank