This is a remarkable group of galaxies, with the central barred region of NGC5101 looking almost like it was overlaid onto a quite different outer disk - and the interacting dusty NGC5078 and IC879. There is also an amazing variety of background fuzzies - a significant proportion of the background objects are non-stellar.
This is about as dim as I can get to from this site - really need darker sky . The outer disk of NGC5101 is only about 24mag/arcsec2, which is really pushing it when the sky is somewhere round mag20.
thanks for looking. regards Ray
Skywatcher 250f4 with RCC1
SX H694
NEQ6
data from 3 nights, lum 1x1 with 200 and 300sec subs, colour 2x2 with 200sec subs. lum FWHM was about 2.3 arcsec with median stacking
Lovely Ray! Nice composition, great colour & good detail. Pretty darned good in fact for only 200 & 300 sec Lum subs! It certainly is a spectacular group!
I have to say though that the watermark smack bang in the middle spoils it for me a bit.
Also, what causes the dark "X" shaped artifact on stars?
Congratulations Ray! Put that one on the top shelf
Very Nice!
Rod
PS: Ray, to change the watermark you could quickly delete your image off Astrobin then re load up again, just dont click the copyright option when you first upload.
Last edited by Rod771; 05-05-2014 at 10:17 PM.
Reason: addition comment
Lovely Ray! Nice composition, great colour & good detail. Pretty darned good in fact for only 200 & 300 sec Lum subs! It certainly is a spectacular group!
I have to say though that the watermark smack bang in the middle spoils it for me a bit.
Also, what causes the dark "X" shaped artifact on stars?
Cheers, Marcus
Thanks Marcus. Short subs are all that are needed with the low read noise and high QE of the camera - I have used longer subs, but get no extra SNR - just lose dynamic range. The crosses are a diffraction effect from the focuser draw tube intruding into the light column. I will have to shorten the OTA, but have been putting off cutting that beautiful CF until I am certain that the scope is a keeper - probably should do it soon. The watermark appeared when I used the uploader defaults on first use of the site - haven't yet worked out how to remove it, but agree that it is a pain.
Quote:
Originally Posted by RickS
That's a great FOV, Ray, and you've done a lovely job on it. With short subs and a low noise camera too
thanks Rick. It needs more time - I will probably have to choose brighter targets in future
Quote:
Originally Posted by Stevec35
That's extremely nice Ray! I would be well pleased with it.
Cheers
Steve
Thanks very much Steve. I am pleased with it, but it could do with somewhat fewer artefacts at full scale....
Congratulations Ray! Put that one on the top shelf
Very Nice!
Rod
PS: Ray to change the watermark you could quickly delete your image off Astrobin then re load up again, just dont click the copyright option when you first upload.
Thanks very much Rod. There seems to already be a trail of comments etc following the original posting that may preclude removal of the image - probably will just leave it as is and put it down to (lack of) experience. I tried uploading a revised version, but the uploader did not give any watermark options and put the same watermark in the new image.
Nice detail Ray and good colour. Background looks like it has a bit of speckle in it. Not visible on my iPad but definitely seen on the high def screen.
The water mark as Marcus points out if off putting too.
Overall a really nice image. Can you tell me if this is a full res image? I am wondering what this camera's native size images look like.
Ray, that is an awesome image. Love all the background galaxies as well.
thanks Paul - yep, the background galaxies are fascinating
Quote:
Originally Posted by clive milne
Bravo!...
Hi Clive. Thanks very much
Quote:
Originally Posted by graham.hobart
Really superb Ray, just gorgeous to look at and marvel at.
Graham
Thanks a lot Graham - appreciate the comment
Quote:
Originally Posted by PRejto
That is a beauty Ray! Makes me want to try the same field but from North Curl Curl I highly doubt it would be very satisfactory.
Hope you can figure out the water mark thing. If you are paying for that site I'd be fairly unhappy!
Peter
Thanks - definitely needs a dark sky Peter. The site is free and looks pretty good - but it looks like the watermark becomes part of the image. My own fault, I didn't read the instructions carefully enough.
Quote:
Originally Posted by strongmanmike
Raaaather good shot that old boy....
I look forward to viewing it back home in a few days, the room here in Thailand is a bit bright but never the less I can tell it's a corker shot
Viva la fast Newt, SX camera and short subs = great combo
Mike
Thanks Mike. Yes, a fast scope with small quiet pixels can work quite well - the main limit is the sky brightness, but one has to live with that or move.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul Haese
Nice detail Ray and good colour. Background looks like it has a bit of speckle in it. Not visible on my iPad but definitely seen on the high def screen.
The water mark as Marcus points out if off putting too.
Overall a really nice image. Can you tell me if this is a full res image? I am wondering what this camera's native size images look like.
Thanks Paul. Speckle does show up on my laptop if the screen is at the wrong angle - decided to set the background up a bit to bring out the last little bit of the dim background stuff - at the expense of some extra noise. The original on the site is full res, with about 5mpix of the full 6mpix frame (cropped for composition). So this is pretty close to a full native scale image - full frame is about 0.8 x 0.5 degrees.
regards Ray
Edit: just realised that the background galaxy cluster is Abell 728S
. The outer disk of NGC5101 is only about 24mag/arcsec2, which is really pushing it when the sky is somewhere round mag20. 
= great combo 
