M83

[Paul Haese]

This is an on going project I am working on. My goals here are to image the outer halo of this galaxy. That will take a fair bit of integration time to determine how far the halo actually extends. Added to this is the almost visible striations in the outer arms. And; any possible IFN that may exist. So I will report back once I have hopefully attained those goals.

This image contains 8.4 hours of integration time.

Click here for full resolution image.

[astroron (Ron)]

Very nice Paul.
Look forward to the finished project.
Cheers.

[RickS (Rick)]

A great start, Paul. I'm also looking forward to the final result.

Cheers,
Rick.

[Stevec35 (Steve)]

I would be very happy with that Paul.

Cheers

Steve

[Atmos (Colin)]

Looking really nice already Paul, looking forward to seeing what you can draw out with more integration time

[Shiraz (Ray)]

that's a ripper Paul - already looks brilliant. The fine detail is excellent and you already have a fair bit of the halo.

[Placidus (Mike and Trish)]

Superb!

You remain a master at producing beautifully high contrast images.

Best,
M

[glend (Glen)]

Paul it is fabulous. Did you include some Ha to bring out those emission nebula in the arms? And what sort of sub times are you running if i might ask. I have problem with centre blow out in my images of M83 so i assume you have used layer masking, is that correct?

[Paul Haese]

Thanks guys for the comments. Much appreciated.

Originally Posted by Shiraz

that's a ripper Paul - already looks brilliant. The fine detail is excellent and you already have a fair bit of the halo.

Thanks Ray. Very kind of you to say so. The fine detail is something I have brought from my back ground in planetary work. To my way of thinking images with fine detail always looks so much better than images with bolder looking high contrast detailing. I try to avoid using sharpening that causes the later.

I think the halo extends out a long way. I can see little knots of stars quite a way out but still in the halo that might indicate there is more to be seen signal wise. Time will tell I suppose but I enjoy this sort of challenge.

Originally Posted by glend

Paul it is fabulous. Did you include some Ha to bring out those emission nebula in the arms? And what sort of sub times are you running if i might ask. I have problem with centre blow out in my images of M83 so i assume you have used layer masking, is that correct?

Thanks Glen. I have collected some Ha but at this stage have not added this to the image. I probably need a couple more hours of data yet to add it to the image. My subs are 15 minutes for colour and 20 minutes for luminance, 30 minutes for Ha.

I will have to do some short subs to remove the blown centre. It get pretty well blown in a few minutes. It has a very bright core.

[alpal]

Wow Paul,
that's got to be one of the best ever posted of M83 on Ice in Space.
It's got so much detail & even the 2 little galaxies to the right are clearly shown.

cheers
Allan

[deeplook (Markus)]

Hi Paul,

thats a very nice project! The image looks already great, looking forward for the final version!

Markus

[Peter Ward]

This image is doing my head in...

The outer field stars are slightly soft, but beautifully symmetrical

Yet many inner galaxy stars have slightly eggy profiles (2-8 o'clock) with tighter profiles and show fainter stars compared to the those elsewhere in the image.

I have no idea how you do it! but it makes a stand-out M83 for sure

[h0ughy (David)]

awesome - on a 48" monitor at full res - i am having a homer moment... _

[astronobob (Bob)]

Excellent - another 'in the making' mighty deep one coming from the master of integration time

[Paul Haese]

Thanks Markus, David and Bob for your comments.

Originally Posted by alpal

Wow Paul,
that's got to be one of the best ever posted of M83 on Ice in Space.
It's got so much detail & even the 2 little galaxies to the right are clearly shown.

cheers
Allan

I think Eric Benson's image of this target is about the best here. His image scale is huge with the image being taken on the 20" at Arkaroola in SA. I was pleased to see my colour natively came out very similarly to his.

Originally Posted by Peter Ward

This image is doing my head in...

The outer field stars are slightly soft, but beautifully symmetrical

Yet many inner galaxy stars have slightly eggy profiles (2-8 o'clock) with tighter profiles and show fainter stars compared to the those elsewhere in the image.

I have no idea how you do it! but it makes a stand-out M83 for sure

Thanks Peter, some of the lum subs at present have slightly eggy stars. With some of the sharpening runs I did the size of the stars are reduced enough to make the star shapes evident around the galaxy itself.

As you know quality data to start with helps. The AOX is the clincher in this deal as you know. It helps to give good sharp data to about two orders of magnitude of seeing on the Pickering scale.

[Flugel88 (Michael)]

Amazing stuff Paul for only 8.4 hours can't wait to see what it looks like once you have put more data.

The core looks very nice and under exposed masterful processing.

[Peter Ward]

Originally Posted by Paul Haese

..The AOX .... give(s) good sharp data to about two orders of magnitude of seeing on the Pickering scale.

They are good....but not that good.

...100x better...nah....but 2x maybe

[alpal]

Originally Posted by Paul Haese

Thanks Markus, David and Bob for your comments.

I think Eric Benson's image of this target is about the best here. His image scale is huge with the image being taken on the 20" at Arkaroola in SA. I was pleased to see my colour natively came out very similarly to his.

Hi Paul,
I hadn't seen his image before:
http://www.faintgalaxy.com/ngc5236_full.htm

He may have gone a little deeper?
You've done well to go up against a Planewave CDK20, EFL = 3420 mm.

cheers
Allan

[Andy01 (Andy)]

I'm not usually much of a galaxy guy but to me that's a beautiful image Paul - very well done !

[clive milne]

Wow, that is impressive..
Are you imaging from Arkaroola now Paul?