Caldwell 23 (NGC 891) - a rip in spacetime

[x6gas]

It feels like a long time since I've posted anything... I don't need to say anything about the UK weather but the few clear nights we have had I've had various problems and haven't managed to capture enough data for a complete image.

I did have clear nights on the 24th and 30th of December and pointed my scope towards the edge on spiral galaxy Caldwell 23 (NGC 891).  I absolutely love this object and to me it looks like someone has slashed spacetime.  It's surface brightness is fairly low and I had to do multiple LAB stretches to get the colour to come through.  I've actually spent a long time tinkering with the processing on this - much of it trying to decide how bright to make the star field and how much sharpening to do so I'd be very interested in people's thoughts on these two elements in particular.

This was taken with my 1100 EdgeHD with the Celestron 0.7 x reducer to give some star field around the galaxy.  RGB with 40 x 300s subs per channel for a total integration time of 10 hours.  The data is actually very good, so the results are most limited by my processing skills.

Scope: Celestron 1100 EdgeHD w/0.7 reducer

Mount: iOptron CEM60-EC

Camera: Atik 460ex w/Astrodon 38mm filters

Guiding: Atik OAG, QHY5L II, PHD2

Thanks for looking,

Ian

(edited to bring in the black point a little...)

[perfrej]

That's pretty good! No Lums?

/per

[jeremile]

Hello,
The image has potential, it can probably be improved with better treatment.

Can you post your original image ( L and RGB) without processing? I want to try!

Jérémy

[PatrickGilliland]

Great start - LRGB not my skill set yet but if there is more to get out fo the data then you will have a superb image pretty soon.

Paddy

[cloudbuster]

Very, very nice ian!

[x6gas]

That's pretty good! No Lums?

/per

Thanks Per.  No, no luminance on this one as I decided to just go for plenty of colour data.  I have tried producing a false lum by stacking the RGB subs but I am still working on it.

If weather permits I will try to capture the luminance subs to compare the results.

Thanks again.

[x6gas]

Hello,

The image has potential, it can probably be improved with better treatment.

Can you post your original image ( L and RGB) without processing? I want to try!

Jérémy

Hi Jérémy - and thanks for commenting.

As I say above there is no luminance and I stacked the RGB subs using a 3x drizzle (just experimenting) so the registered TIFs are too large to post.  I am away from home at the moment but when I get back I will post the native scale versions for you to have a go at.

[x6gas]

Great start - LRGB not my skill set yet but if there is more to get out fo the data then you will have a superb image pretty soon.

Paddy

Very, very nice ian!

Thanks gents - very kind of you :-)