First Light New Rig NGC 6744 Pavo Galaxy

[Startrek (Martin)]

Originally Posted by gregbradley

That's an impressive first light of this beautiful, but dim, galaxy.


Greg.

Thanks Greg

Cheers
Martin

[Startrek (Martin)]

Spent another hour on the image this arvo and squeezed a bit more detail and contrast out of it using Startools
Same stretch
Added Contrast module
Added HDR module ( reveal all )
Addd some Decon 1.8 pixels
Increased Bright saturation in Colour module

Here’s the result

Native frame version
Crop version

Cheers
Martin

[gregbradley]

Really nice Martin, one of your finest. Top notch.

The problem with images of this object is usually the dominance of the Milky Way's foreground stars.
Yours shows a nice balance.
Greg.

[marc4darkskies (Marcus)]

Great first light Martin! Well done.

[Startrek (Martin)]

Originally Posted by gregbradley

Really nice Martin, one of your finest. Top notch.

The problem with images of this object is usually the dominance of the Milky Way's foreground stars.
Yours shows a nice balance.
Greg.

Thanks Greg
Yes this Galaxy has a very prominent Star field
Startools has quite a few modules and operations which can gently tone down the Star field without looking too artificial

Martin

[Startrek (Martin)]

Originally Posted by marc4darkskies

Great first light Martin! Well done.

Thanks Marcus
Everything just clicked , must be a first for me
Gives me confidence moving forward

Cheers
Martin

[kosborn (Kevin)]

Nicely done Martin. Great result! I'm glad you are enjoying the CF Newt. I love mine but took the easy option of Diego building it for me. Putting it together yourself must make the resulting images even more satisfying!

Kevin

[Startrek (Martin)]

Originally Posted by kosborn

Nicely done Martin. Great result! I'm glad you are enjoying the CF Newt. I love mine but took the easy option of Diego building it for me. Putting it together yourself must make the resulting images even more satisfying!

Kevin

Thanks Kevin,
The build went together quite good, only had to elongate a few holes. The only concern was whether it would come to focus with the TS GPU coma corrector. Lucky I had 10mm spare travel which doesn’t seem much but it’s plenty.
It’s so much easier to collimate compared to my smaller Newts which surprised me. Yes Paul and Diego from Sidereal are always accomodating, great Astro company. They will be producing their own carbon fibre Newts very soon. I hope they make a success of it.

Cheers
Martin

[xelasnave]

I really like those last two Martin and love the spikes.
I may try this object again to see if I can get anywhere near your top quality ...I dont think I have a chance of course but may help me figure out what I need to fix on my rig.
alex

[Startrek (Martin)]

Originally Posted by xelasnave

I really like those last two Martin and love the spikes.
I may try this object again to see if I can get anywhere near your top quality ...I dont think I have a chance of course but may help me figure out what I need to fix on my rig.
alex

Thanks Alex,
Appreciate it
From what I gather a RASA ( especially a huge one ) is not an easy beast to tame , that’s why I stuck to using basic newts , they just do the job and easy to collimate , focus and set up.
I think your making steady progress with that big rig and from the sounds of it your conditions are not great with mist and fog and cloud etc… which definitely doesn’t help
Can I suggest something, maybe pick an easy bright target like M8 , try your OSC 2600MC first , then once that’s mastered , move on to your Mono 2600MM with filters etc…
Ive always found small steps lead to quicker progress and eventually satisfying results.
I take my hat of to you for taking on a difficult challenge

Thanks again !

Best always
Martin

[xelasnave]

Good advice Martin.

I tend to jump in the deep end. I had never seen a moto cross race but read about them in a dirt bike magazine ...so on the Tuesday I ordered a new MX bike, picked it up on the Thursday, ran it in on the Saturday and saw my first MX race on the Sunday and went in the race after that one. Did not hang back either and got thru the first corner in fifth..the first time I went sailing was on the Sunday in the boat I had bought on the previous Thursday.

The big problem with the RASA is the filter drawer is not close to the camera with a 20 mm spacer...I need to rearrange this ... it is bad enough having filters with the short F/L but having the filter set so far away will see issues....I should have sorted it out but after all the waiting for filters, sending back incorrect filter drawers, not being able to sortvout back focus with the bits in the box ....and more... I was happy when I got back focus (thanks to some work with an angle grinder) and finally get some sort of an image...I have worked out the thing most certainly has tilt (if not tilt I have a huge problem) and to get rid of the doughnuts in the bottom left corner I have to make the focus a bit soft elsewhere...

Anyways I will fix it but I suspect it may become just a OSC scope ...which would be good as I reckon I could bag 5 objects a night.

I am thinking of getting a Espirite 150 mm if I give up on the RASA...as you know I like six inch scopes

Anyways it is great to see your results I get real excited when I see you have a new post
Alex.

[Retrograde (Pete)]

Congratulations on first light in the new observatory and a fine image too.

[Startrek (Martin)]

Originally Posted by Retrograde

Congratulations on first light in the new observatory and a fine image too.

Thanks Pete
Appreciate it
It’s my first light with the upgraded rig
I’ve had my Obs since March 2021

Cheers
Martin