Ngc300

[Ken]

Finally put this together after many interupted nights with poor weather using the 18" Newt with QHY9.
Lum. 1.5 hrs red 1 hr green 1 hr 1.25 hrs blue. need more data but the moon spoiled the fun. Thanks for looking.
Clear skies Ken

[AlexN]

With more exposure this could be a real winner mate! Looks stunning, and I dare say that the resolution provided by your scope should really create something amazing!

[Tilt (Michael)]

Stretching the legs of that newly assembled rig I see, pretty good detail in this image Ken, I'd like to see how it comes along with more data added over time

Michael

[bokglob (Darrell)]

Photon guzzling porker newt! fantastic for a few hours data Ken. thanks for posting

[Paul Haese]

Yes more integration time is needed Ken. Guiding looks pretty good, and you have the makings of a fine image.

[rogerg (Roger)]

I think that's a great effort of what I've found to be a relatively hard object to image. NGC300 is often either too big or too small for telescope FOV's, and quite faint overall.

Sure more exposure time would always help but 4.75 hours can be hard to find as it is And your result looks good for the amount of exposure time.

The contrast of colours you've achieved looks good but I'm tempted to darken the background more and it looks like you need a flat frame in your reduction, as the bottom of the frame is brighter than the top of the frame, or perhaps there's a light gradient for some other reason, which could be corrected in processing.

[TrevorW]

Dim little bugger isn't it especially for a big one like yours

time and patience (neither of which I have) will produce the goods

[Lester]

Nice image Ken showing many nebula within the galaxy.

I am sure your size telescope will resolve a heap of detail in most DSOs.

All the best.

[Ken]

Thanks for your comments Alex, Michael, Darrell, Paul, Roger, Trevor and Lester NGC300 is fairly large but a bit on the faint side. I still have a few gremlins in the mount causing egg shaped stars resulting in throwing away half the data. I should have also taken some calibration frames as my secondary mirror is under sized although as Roger said it seems to be brighter around the edges the opposite of vignetting.
clear skies Ken

[telecasterguru (Frank)]

Ken,

I think you're onto a winner with your rig although I must ask what type of mount are you using? Can't wait to what can be achieved when you get it purring along.

Frank

[Hagar (Doug)]

Coming along nicely Ken but I do agree with you. More exposure is needed. It's a pitty the moon doesn't have a switch to turn it off for a while, it would make imaging a lot easier ad maybe even some diversion process on clouds.

[AlexN]

I keep saying we should send a petition to NASA... Next Mission : Applying adhesive felt to the entire surface of the moon

[Prickly]

Looks like you are moving onto all the more difficult targets Ken. Nice colours and some great detail is present. The tracking again is great.

Cheers
David

[leinad (Dan)]

Looking forward to see you get more exposure time on this one Ken.
Great first few hrs of a result. Did the luminance channel make much difference in the process?

NGC300 has been on my target list but haven't got around to it yet.

[Ken]

Frank I posted some pics of my home made fork mount two weeks ago under the heading Bi colour spider in this forum. I think that a few million litres of blackboard paint should fix the moon Doug and Alex. Thanks David I think I will have to change to OAG to get consistent guiding on every exposure. You raise a very good point leinad the lum. does add brightness and detail to the image but it seems to mute the colour channels and probably alter the colour balance. When ccd imaging first started RGB was the norm then lum. were taken at 1x1 binning and rgb at 2x2 binning rate to speed things up. Today with the smaller pixel cameras on medium to long FL scopes maybe you are better off using just RGB binned to 2x2 as the filter technology has also improved from the early dyed glass things.
clear skies Ken