My go at NGC 6744

[Garyh]

Well finally finished my attempt at this wonderful but faint spiral galaxy.
Imaged this around the same time that Big Mike done his beautiful version. Seeing and transparency were both not bad over the two nights I did this. Had a few problems calibrating the two nights worth together but finally managed to get it looking pretty good.

Not a par on the detail showing in Marcus image or the depth that Mike achieved in his shot but I think it came out rather well for a DSLR and at only 915mm FL.

Image is a total of 5 hours of 5min subs with the usual darks, flats etc.
Some minor deconvolution and noise reduction done but overall I am very happy with this one ex compared to my previous versions.
Next time I shall go longer subs! as I forgot how faint this one is..

Image cropped a bit and reduced for posting but still looks good for under 200ks
Comments most welcome like always..
cheers Gary

[dugnsuz (Doug)]

That's really nice Gary - well framed, beautiful processing job, smooth as!
Doug

[gregbradley]

Hey, that is quite nice. Its upside down though hehe.

Background a tad brown and it would be nice if you could tease out more of the nice blue hues this baby has in the spiral arms (selective colour -blues).

Overall a nice result as you say, from this rather faint galaxy.

Greg.

[SkyViking (Rolf)]

Beautiful image, well balanced and natural looking - and still with a lot of detail. Thanks for sharing

[cybereye (Mario)]

Gary,

A nice shot - I especially like the faint, far arms of the spiral that you've managed to image.

What ISO did you use? How dark are your skies around Glen Innes?

Cheers,
Mario

[DavidU (Dave)]

Very good image Gary. Beautiful result.

[h0ughy (David)]

like what you have done Gary - nice and subtle

[renormalised (Carl)]

Nice piccie....lots of detail

[mswhin63 (Malcolm)]

Great picture. It is good to see some wonderful images from a DSLR.

[marco (Marco Lorenzi)]

...wow!!

Marco

[marc4darkskies (Marcus)]

A very respectable rendition Gary ... nicely processed and good detail! This is quite a tough target to do justice to but you've done very well. Yes, longer subs will make a difference but your 5 hours of data has served you well.

Cheers, Marcus

[CoolhandJo (Paul)]

Nice. Like the star colours. Natural!

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

I recon it's a bluudy beauty!

I can not imagine a better rendition with the equipment used, you can be suitably chuffed with this image

Mike

[RobF (Rob)]

That's a really nice honest 6744 for sure

You've made it look deceptively easy Gary, when in reality its a fainter blighter that is VERY hard to do justice to without lots of great data.
I love the colour you've ended up with in its centre too....

[multiweb (Marc)]

That's great. Love the processing. You kept the core bright and it looks very natural overall while still showing loads of details and beautiful star colours. Top notch.

[Garyh]

Thank you doug, Greg, Rolf, Mario, Dave, David, Carl, Malcom, Marco, Marcus, Dr Paul, Mike, Rob and Marc!...pheww!

Thanks for all the positive comments on this one

Greg, yes I wish I could tease out some more of the colors in the spiral it`self but still have to learn how too and give them better saturation! have to do some lessons here!

Mario, I used iso 1000 for this lot! It`s a good compromise between iso 800 and 1600

cheers everyone

[Ric]

Great capture Gary.

The faint extensions of the spiral arms look fantastic.

Top stuff

[Garyh]

Thanks Ric! much appreciated!

[RB (Andrew)]

Beautiful shot Gary.
Love the processing.

Well done mate.