Messing around with the F2.8 newtonian

[Catanonia]

Nice clear night tonight , low moon and crystal clear.

I am still having fun / learning the newtonion F2.8, my 1st ever newtonian ( sucker for punnishment eh ), but tonight I wanted to put aside the problems and go for some imaging for a change even though the setup is far from perfect.

Issues I still have are focus problems in various parts of the image, collimation, tilt and my polar alignment is way off.

M33 was a nice target, high up early on, so left it imaging at F2.8 for 3 min LRGB subs whilst I took the wifey out for a birthday dinner in town.

Ended up with 15 x 3 min subs or 3 hours of LRGB when we got back. A quick process and , mmmmm, something special about this scope or I am doing something majory wrong.

The 1st image was my best effort with the SkyWatcher MN190 @ F5.3 Astrograph of 16 hours on M33. If I remember it was 8 minute subs for this image for LRGB

That was 16 hours at 1000mm Focal Length

So here is 3 hours in 3 minute subs for LRGB (15 each) with the SuperNewt F2.8 @ 570mm focal length. A quick 30 mins processing, so not precise or too careful. Flats. Bias and Darks have been applied and each layer was DBE gradient processed individually before combining.

Yes just 3 hours in 3 min subs. Loads of star issues with collimation I am aware about, just wanted to image something for a change instead of messing, but I am outstanded with the results.

No matter how much I check, this scope just picks up the MilkyWay dust in the images. It is all over the place. So much so I have to keep checking my flats and processing to make sure I am not messing up, but these dust lanes are all over all of my images.

I just have to learn how to process the things :D

If I ever get this scope aligned, collimated and set up right, wow I will be amazed.

Something keeps telling me though, this is processing / flat error, but on the Bodes galaxies, the patterns fit the integrated flux images on google to a tee. So I am forcing myself to believe the image you see is actually what is there, dust clouds.

Thoughts ? searching google images for M33 doesn't show anything like this, but then again they are heavily processed and any trace would have been removed.

EDIT : The image is stretched a wee bit too much for my liking, but I wanted to show the dust lanes and still keep M33 fairly sharp. Obviously some adjustment on the levels would reduce them, but they will not go away.

[Jessun]

This is a beast of a scope! I am really impressed by the colours, framing etc. As you say maybe a bit heavy on the editing side but a fantastic setup! You have a few interesting lines cutting across the image, could they be sat trails? How do you stack?

Annoyingly good anyways!

[Catanonia]

This is a beast of a scope! I am really impressed by the colours, framing etc. As you say maybe a bit heavy on the editing side but a fantastic setup! You have a few interesting lines cutting across the image, could they be sat trails? How do you stack?

Annoyingly good anyways!

thanks, yes rough processing and a bit on the heavy side. The lines are indeed sat trails. I am going to image again tomorrow for another 3 hours and then do a proper process.

It is a beast of a scope, also a beast to collimate and setup, but it is fun messing, honest

[Catanonia]

Still not convinced, so I am redoing my flats on this one.

[Catanonia]

Well I redone the flats and went through the whole process again. Slight differences, but the dust is still there. I can only assume it is real.

[Zul]

Oh my God! Best m33 i ever seen!

[Catanonia]

Oh my God! Best m33 i ever seen!

thanks mate, redoing exactly the same again as the collimation was awful in this image and the polar alignment was massively off giving rubish guiding. Also I have sort out the tilt.

Looking much better this time as the subs come in

Grabbing another 3 hours worth and compare against this post before M78 rises for me.

[Spikey]

Looking very,very nice Cat.

Seems a slight bit clearer air tonight by us, even if there is the odd bit of cloud about.

Here's me sitting on M45 at f6.5