Yet Another Markarian .....

[gnomus]

I finally managed to get some green data - after more than a week of waiting.

Lum 18 x 10 mins

Red and Blue 15 x 10 mins

Green 10 x 10 mins  

WO Star 71, Atik 383L, Baader LRGB filters 

PI and PS

 

[MattJenko]

Nicely done. Took me over a week's wait to finish mine too!

[laudropb]

Very nice finished image.

[MartinB]

It might be "yet another" but it's a very good one!

[Davey-T]

Another excellent Mak'Chain Steve, I've had to abandon it now as it's headed into S London LP and move along to Coma Cluster.

Dave

[gnomus]

Thanks all.  It looked a bit 'empty' on the right hand side, so I decided to crop out a little bit.  I also 'brightened' the galaxies just a tad.

 

[Barry-Wilson]

Well done Steve a very good image.

The composition of the second image has benefited from the crop, although it is surprisingly difficult to decide exactly what to frame, and thereby decide what is excluded, in this busy area of the sky rich with galaxies.

You also developed the yellow colour tone well without introducing gradients; your 600s RGB subs must have helped with this too in spite of the relatively subdued colouring of the Markarian Chain.

[Dave Smith]

Very nice indeed. I am currently doing this but still have to get the colour.

Dave

[gnomus]

Thanks again Barry and Dave.

[Paul73]

I never get tired of this one.

So many tiny faint ones captured!

Paul

[Uranium235]

Looks good!

I dare you to do a 2x2 mosaic

[ollypenrice]

Top quality. Super background sky, small stars, excellent colour, crisp resolution, low noise... I guess that has to make it a bit of a winner, and it is.

Olly

[gnomus]

Thanks again.  A 2 x 2 mosaic indeed!!!!!  I am trying very hard not to moan about our weather (since it always sounds like a poker player's 'bad beat' story), but .... that weather, man.....

[Filroden]

It looks beautiful. I'd be tempted to crop the right side further and see how it looks as a 1 x 1 frame. 

[gnomus]

47 minutes ago, Filroden said:

It looks beautiful. I'd be tempted to crop the right side further and see how it looks as a 1 x 1 frame. 

Thank you to everyone for being so kind.  

I know exactly what you mean from a purely compositional point of view.  However, there are a couple of small galaxies just below the midline on the right that I would lose if I cropped much tighter.  I just didn't have the heart.....  Do folks think I'd be better off losing them?

[toxic]

now then thats a nice chain indeed well done.

[gnomus]

12 hours ago, Filroden said:

It looks beautiful. I'd be tempted to crop the right side further and see how it looks as a 1 x 1 frame. 

Perhaps Filroden is on to something.  I have cropped it square as he suggested and brought out a bit more in the galaxies.

[pyrasanth]

That's a great image- I really like the colour balance & the lack of noise. Have you tested the Lodestar X2 camera yet?- I'm sure you will find it a great help in tackling the fainter areas of the sky- I never failed to find a suitable guide star with it.

[gnomus]

Just now, pyrasanth said:

That's a great image- I really like the colour balance & the lack of noise. Have you tested the Lodestar X2 camera yet?- I'm sure you will find it a great help in tackling the fainter areas of the sky- I never failed to find a suitable guide star with it.

Thanks pyra (I hope you don't mind me using the diminutive).  The green channel was shot using the LodestarX2 for guiding.  I used the ZWO for the other channels.  With the ZWO I only found one star that I could use to guide.  With the Lodestar I was spoiled for choice.  Much higher SNRs too and better looking stars in the PHD 'close up' window.    Here is a portion of the guide trace I got on the 'green night'.  I'm a bit fearful of posting this in case you demand a bit more money for the Lodestar!!  

[pyrasanth]

I'm really pleased its working well for you. It's an expensive investment & you deserve to get the best from it. I've just upgraded to the Ultrastar which I suppose is the big brother of the X2. This was solely for the reason of a bigger field of view for the ONAG. I was more than happy with the performance of the guide camera. You've got a nice trace from PHD2. I get a nice flat graph from my Paramount as well so we are all good. I'm working on M82 at present. So far I have got this (posted small so it don't derail your thread)- this was guided with the Ultrastar & PHD2 which proves we both have an excellent guiding combination.

[StuartJPP]

Nice image with good colour.

[carastro]

I really like that, especially with that bunch of smaller galaxies at the bottom of the image, they don't normally get included.

Carole

 

[gnomus]

4 minutes ago, carastro said:

I really like that, especially with that bunch of smaller galaxies at the bottom of the image, they don;t normally get included.

Carole

 

Thanks Carole.  I spent a bit of time in Sky Safari working out what framing I wanted.  Then, using SGP, it was relatively easy to use the 'centre here' plate solve feature to replicate the Sky Safari framing.  Thanks too Stuart.

[fwm891]

Great piece of imaging and processing Steve - camera seems to be working well

[gnomus]

5 minutes ago, fwm891 said:

Great piece of imaging and processing Steve - camera seems to be working well

Thanks Francis, but that's my original 383.  I haven't had a chance to use yours yet.  That's the next project I hope - although in testing last night I had some icing issues, so I'm recharging the tablets as I type.