galaxies near NGC253

[Shiraz (Ray)]

Hi
got a bit over an hour of good seeing on this, so decided to go for broke and bumped the gain to 200 on the ASI1600 - at which the subs were sky-limited in 20 seconds. The loss of dynamic range was more than compensated for by the short-sub improvement in FWHM and some sections of the session yielded subs with FWHM<1.5 arcsec.

I still have days of work ahead on this - the seeing was so good that the subs were slightly undersampled (at 0.76 arcsec sampling), so there will be a smidgin more resolution available from drizzle and with over 500x16mp subs, that will take a long time. For now though, this is a crop from the first quick evaluation stack of uncalibrated subs, showing some of the star formation regions in the galaxy and also some of the far distant galaxies that abound in the field. This is a long way from being a finished article, but I was so excited by the early signs of what the sky had provided that I had to post something . Thanks for looking. regards Ray

[plantnerd (Luis)]

That is spectacularly impressive detail!

[Atmos (Colin)]

That's amazing Ray!!

[batema (Mark)]

Yes stunning detail. Wonderful.

[RickS (Rick)]

Looking forward to the finished version, Ray! Don't take too long now that you've started teasing us

[DJScotty (Scott)]

Very nice detail.
The ASI camera is a cracker!

[codemonkey (Lee)]

Looks awesome so far, Ray, looking forward to seeing the finished product!

[Shiraz (Ray)]

thanks very much folks.

This is going to take a lot of processing yet, but thanks for comments on an interim result.

Sorry that this looks like a teaser - I just didn't want to post the whole thing before I process it properly. Guess I let my enthusiasm get the better of me - oh well.

[alpal]

Hi Ray,
500 subframes! -
that's 1/22 of the noise & it looks as sharp as CHART32.

cheers
Allan

[topheart]

Wow!!

Tim

[Placidus (Mike and Trish)]

Incredibly sharp. This is another world.

[Camelopardalis (Dunk)]

Crikey Ray can you send some of that seeing this way please?

[astroron (Ron)]

Your finished product may have the galaxy in it discovered by Mike Sidonio
(strongman Mike)
Looks fantastic.
Cheers

[Peter Ward]

Your excitement about the results to date is totally understandable

Very impressive. I'm really looking forward to seeing the entire field at that level of depth and resolution.

[plantnerd (Luis)]

What software are you using for Drizzle?
I have a 32 CPU Core workstation with 64GB Ram that might process your images pretty quick. Oh and the hard disk is PCI E SSD that reads at 1400mb per second to keep the CPUs fed with data.

I can process 2500 16MP images into a 5 Gigapixel mosaic in 56 Mins!

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Wow, I can see plenty of evidence of the many faint field galaxies in the background and filigree structure within 253 itself

Marcus will be hating you right now.....

Looking very spegtagular

Mike

[Shiraz (Ray)]

Originally Posted by alpal

Hi Ray,
500 subframes! -
that's 1/22 of the noise & it looks as sharp as CHART32.

cheers
Allan

thanks Allan - I have been using the ESO image as a guide, although my system cannot produce anything like the big scopes.

Originally Posted by topheart

Wow!!

Tim

thank you Tim

Originally Posted by Placidus

Incredibly sharp. This is another world.

Thanks M&T. it all comes down to seeing in the end - nice to have a bit of good stuff.

Originally Posted by Camelopardalis

Crikey Ray can you send some of that seeing this way please?

The seeing surprised me, but this site does best at the change of the seasons, when the nearby ocean is at about the same temp as the night air. During winter it is like imaging alongside a power station, with the sea about 10C hotter than the night air.

Originally Posted by astroron

Your finished product may have the galaxy in it discovered by Mike Sidonio
(strongman Mike)
Looks fantastic.
Cheers

hi Ron. Unfortunately, I don't have Mike's galaxy in the field - pity really

Originally Posted by Peter Ward

Your excitement about the results to date is totally understandable

Very impressive. I'm really looking forward to seeing the entire field at that level of depth and resolution.

thanks Peter - we shall see.

Originally Posted by plantnerd

What software are you using for Drizzle?
I have a 32 CPU Core workstation with 64GB Ram that might process your images pretty quick. Oh and the hard disk is PCI E SSD that reads at 1400mb per second to keep the CPUs fed with data.

I can process 2500 16MP images into a 5 Gigapixel mosaic in 56 Mins!

blimey that's fast Luis. I only have a quad I7 with 16G RAM, so it churns along relatively slowly. I plan to use both Nebulosity and PI for the deconvolution and choose the best result. Nebulosity in particular is slow with a large stack, but it can sometimes do better than PI in recovering resolution.

[Shiraz (Ray)]

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

Wow, I can see plenty of evidence of the many faint field galaxies in the background and filigree structure within 253 itself

Marcus will be hating you right now.....

Looking very spegtagular

Mike

Thanks Mike. Seeing is still king. I doubt that it will get to the same level as Marcus' image, but I hope it will come out OK - now to find the time to process everything. Pity the field doesn't include your galaxy though - didn't think of trying for

[astroron (Ron)]

Originally Posted by Shiraz

Thanks Mike. Seeing is still king. I doubt that it will get to the same level as Marcus' image, but I hope it will come out OK - now to find the time to process everything. Pity the field doesn't include your galaxy though - didn't think of trying for

Yes it's a pity you didn't remember Mikes galaxy, Ray
It's 253 season and I look at all the images being published for even a hint of Mikes galaxy,but none so far
Come on all you astrophotographers go deep enough to capture Mikes galaxy.
Cheers

[JA]

Looks wonderful
Looking forward to the final image

Best
JA