My First Galaxy

[Knight of Clear Skies]

Had my first go at imaging a galaxy a three nights ago. I was aiming for the Whirlpool.

I missed...

But fortunately the Pinwheel galaxy was on the other side of the Plough!

There it is, hiding near the top of the frame (that's a crop, the 50mm gives terrible coma over the outer third of the frame). It was taken with a modded Canon 100D with my 50mm f1.8 lens, riding on a Vixen GP2 mount. I just did a very rough polar alignment and stuck to 15 second subs. It's 5 minutes of data in total, no darks or flats yet and only a quick go at the processing. Here's a 1:1 crop:

Fairly rubbish image, but I'm pleased to bag my first galaxy. I'd love to try an hour on Andromeda with this setup.

[oldpink]

image not working

[Knight of Clear Skies]

I think the problem is at your end oldpink, I can see it in the post on my laptop and my phone.

[PeterCPC]

I can see it fine. Well done. You could try altering the contrast to darken a bit.

Peter

[Space Bat]

Just a quick play - with PI nothing to fancy - a bit rusty with it after so long

[oldpink]

I think the problem is at your end oldpink, I can see it in the post on my laptop and my phone.

still can't see it, possibly because I don't have a flickr account

[Adamar98]

Nice image to say its a 50mm lens you're using. It was only the other month you where asking about stacking and processing. You've certainly done your homework. Well done!

Just wait until Cygnus is up. You'll be amazed at what that modded camera and that little lens will give you.

Looking forward to seeing more of your work.

[Knight of Clear Skies]

Just a quick play - with PI nothing to fancy - a bit rusty with it after so long

Nice work toning the noise down thanks, gives me an idea of what is possible. I will take some darks and dark bias shots tomorrow if I can get the camera temperature down to a similar level. There is always the fridge!

still can't see it, possibly because I don't have a flickr account

I don't think that's the problem, as my phone shows it and it has never been logged in to flickr. I would guess their server is just playing up for some reason. If you (or anyone else) still can't see it then please let me know. (You aren't missing that much.)

Nice image to say its a 50mm lens you're using. It was only the other month you where asking about stacking and processing. You've certainly done your homework. Well done!

Just wait until Cygnus is up. You'll be amazed at what that modded camera and that little lens will give you.

Looking forward to seeing more of your work.

Thanks very much. It's a bit rubbish but I'm very pleased with it, I like my little spiral and it's something I can build on. I've just been lent an EQ1 mount to take away to Hertfordshire and will buy an RA motor for it to practise with. I can get a rough polar alignment with the setting circles and can practise drift alignment to push the subs a bit longer. When I've got got the hang of things I can get myself something better. I'm enjoying myself and am in no hurry.

Funnily enough, my aiming accident has worked out well - for us. We take images here at Caradon Observatory for the GCSE students at Liskeard school, and one requested M101. I've been assured mine is fit for purpose but the recipient might be a little disappointed with it, especially if they see the M51 taken the same evening with the 8" Vixen and SBIG for another student.  Since we don't charge anything for doing this I'm happy for it to be given to them, but I will try to add some more data and tidy it up before it is sent on. They will also get the subs if they want to play with it. Still, it could be a blessing disguised in noise - one thing they can write about is how the image could be improved. 

M67 has also been requested, so I'll have a go at that if I get the chance. Since it's an open cluster I might try stopping down the 50mm for that one, or a longer lens. The next couple nights are looking promising here.

[tingting44]

thats sweet for 5 mins! onwards and upwards of the DSO bug lol

[Pete Presland]

congrats on your 1st DSO image!

[StuartJPP]

If someone had said this was possible 3 years ago I wouldn't have believed them (with the modest kit being used).

Warning...it gets addictive.

[zedds]

Nice capture. I like the scale of the galaxy in the first image.

Any idea what the 2 runs of dots are?

[Knight of Clear Skies]

Well spotted, I'm not sure. I assumed they were tumbling satellites but looking at it full res there are actually three parallel trails, one red, one green and one blue. Could be some kind of processing artifact maybe?

[wxsatuser]

Well spotted, I'm not sure. I assumed they were tumbling satellites but looking at it full res there are actually three parallel trails, one red, one green and one blue. Could be some kind of processing artifact maybe?

Hot pixels may be.

[iksose7]

Well spotted, I'm not sure. I assumed they were tumbling satellites but looking at it full res there are actually three parallel trails, one red, one green and one blue. Could be some kind of processing artifact maybe?

They will be planes. The two outer lines are lights on each wing and the centre line the light on the fuselage.

[Knight of Clear Skies]

Hot pixels may be.

I think you are right, I've looked at the subs and they are showing up as single coloured dots. It's weird they are in a pattern though - some kind of read noise maybe?

I did wonder about planes, but they wouldn't leave a single dot on a 20 second exposure.

[wxsatuser]

See if there is one dot for each exposure.

Wild guess.............wonder if the stacking aligned the stars but did'nt do the pixels.

[Knight of Clear Skies]

I'm not sure, hot pixel removal was turned on but perhaps it didn't work for some reason. I'll experiment some more when I have the time.

Here's a version with 10 darks applied:

More stretching has brought out the Pinwheel more, but bloated the stars. I guess I'd need a star mask to fix this.