Lessons from Centaurus A - processing takes time...
Once upon a time there was an astrophotographer who took some images of Centaurus A. It was heavily light polluted. He sat down one night and pushed through an image and then posted it on IIS.
"I can't do better than that", he mused to himself.
But then he tinkered and posted another version the next day. Then Ivo said "Give me your data and I will show you one of the many paths to a better image" And he did. And the astrophotographer posted that image as well.
And then he thought "Maybe if I used what Ivo has taught me I could get an even better version of my image." But this time he spent several nights working on his image. Finally he looked at his data and was happy. And he and Centaurus A lived happily ever after!
So, the lesson I've learnt from this data set (and I'm sure it's no surprise to most people on IIS!) is that it takes time to process, or, in other words, Rome wasn't built in a day!!
I've attached the final (I promise!) image for people to peruse. The differences this time include stacking the data without using my flats and a better handle of how to resolve the light pollution issues. As before it's 15 x 3 minute subs. I've tried to remove all the noise that I could while still trying to maintain some resolution. I've found it is a difficult balancing act...
