Last night was a very special night for me. I managed to image my first ever galaxy. M83 was the lucky one and I've posted it for all to see.
The sensor noise was again an issue so I don't thing I'll persevere with trying to process this any more than I have. I'm hoping to move up to a OSC in a few months time - QHY8L is in my sights - so these faint beasties won't cause me the heartache that they currently are.
Anyway, back to the image at hand. 16x5minute subs @ ISO400, darks, flats, flat darks, etc. Stacked in DSS and tarted up in PS and noise removal in Neat Image. Guiding using PHD and focus using a Bahtinov mask. I'm not sure about the focusing - it seemed ok in the test shots but it may be off a tad.
Nothing flash but I will always remember my first...
Nice pic for a firstie !! Good round stars, nice little diffraction spikes and the galaxy looks well defined, and naturally coloured. I'm not so keen on these Hubble Palette jobs although they have their place in highlighting features I guess.
Congratulations, hope my first serious shot comes close.
Good first up effort, will take something special to top your Saturn image though. Your focus is off, the double diffraction spikes on your stars show this. Could also be collimation issues causing those.
Nothing flash????? - that looks great. I remember my first galaxy and I was thrilled and had 1cm star trails through the whole image. You've done well. I would probably try ISO 800 in future as I have shot this with a DSLR and I usually go 8 minutes. Noise is always an issue but lots of images and yes the darks to go with it.
Thanks everyone for the kind thoughts. I've posted nebula images before but as this was my first galaxy I was rather excited!
I think there are collimation issues with this image. Whilst checking collimation at the beggining of the night I noted, using my laser collimator, that collimation was at its best when the focuser locking screw was tightened as much as it could be. However with a camera hanging of the focuser tube it may not be able to reach the same point when tightening the locking screw. But this is a small problem and I keep reminding myself, as I do the people at work, that there are no problems only solutions!! Now I just need to find the solution...
As for my saying the image was "nothing flash", I guess I'm used to seeing the images on the Deep Space forum so was expecting mine to look the same. I'd put a lot of effort and planning into this so the expectations were high, especially after my Saturn effort. However I now have a platform to work from and know where I can improve.
It looks like focusing was the issue with this image! I checked the individual shots and all but the very first test shot are slightly out of focus. After the first test shot I tested an ISO of 800 and must have put a tad too much pressure when pressing the buttons on the DSLR. This in turn appears to have slightly moved the focuser - enough to be only visible on close inspection!!
2 hours later and I wasn't the wiser - aaagghhh.... a valuable lesson learnt here ladies and gentlemen!
Well presented and you are certainly improving. I enjoy many of your image posts and the learning curve you're on like many others in this section of IIS as a guide for many of us beginners.
This was the first set of images that I've taken in a semi-automated way with my mobile phone running the show. I have a 5 minute WAV file that triggers the IR receiver of my Pentax and then a 20s file of silence while the image is downloaded. I put both files in a playlist and loop it.
Guiding was good that night and so there was very little I needed to do except to sit back and enjoy the night sky while my phone did all timing. It certainly made the processing a lot easier with all images exactly the same length.
there is close to 3 years of experience in that and i have so far to go it isn't funny!
Just remember that your doing just fine and the little things you learn along the way will drag you along the same trail!
have you done the Crayford mod to your focuser? using a knife sharpening stone to make the contact point dead flat? this will give your focuser more grip on the tube. also make sure to set focus and lock it or adjust the focuser to be tighter and hence more pressure to the draw tube.
Thanks for the directions to the You Tube clip. I never knew that I could tension up my focuser using a small Allen key! The focuser glides now and there is absolutely no wobble any more - I guess I need to now go back and check collimation....
