Messier 33

[johnrt]

While the rest of the country was being soaked in thunderstorms this week it has stayed calm, sunny and importantly clear at night here in balmy Sevenoaks, which meant I have been able to add some more data to my M33 archives!

This image is a cumulation of 3 years worth of captures, adding up to around 22 hours of imaging time. When the moon got too big this week, I moved over to the 3nm Astrodon to have a little experiment at adding Ha. I captured 9 x 900 seconds, which I added in to the red to highlight those star forming HII regions. As M33 is in galactic terms a next door neighbour, there was no issue of red shift of the Ha emission line reducing the usable signal.

I tried adding the Ha as "blend mode lighten", which did nothing for the red, so went back and used "linear dodge (add)" which worked very well, but can only be added in low opacity numbers (it is quite aggressive!).

Cropped just to remove the misaligned edges, this is another one that just seems to fall perfectly for the focal length of the RC and 460ex.

Altair 6" RC / Atik 460ex, captured in SGPro, constructed in Pixinsight and processed in CS5.

I very much hope you like

 

[Davey-T]

I like it a lot John, funnily enough I took a few subs of M33 recently just looking around the sky to check FOV with the WO110FLT & QSI683 which also fits nicely, I  noticed there were a few HA spots around it so took a couple of HA subs but not done any processing yet.

Still fighting with FocusMax 4 ATM 

Dave

[johnrt]

2 hours ago, Davey-T said:

I like it a lot John, funnily enough I took a few subs of M33 recently just looking around the sky to check FOV with the WO110FLT & QSI683 which also fits nicely, I  noticed there were a few HA spots around it so took a couple of HA subs but not done any processing yet.

Still fighting with FocusMax 4 ATM 

Dave

Thank you Dave,

the Ha signal is pretty strong, especially for a galaxy, you're making me feel a little old fashioned with my manual focus .

[Davey-T]

2 hours ago, johnrt said:

Thank you Dave,

the Ha signal is pretty strong, especially for a galaxy, you're making me feel a little old fashioned with my manual focus .

It was supposed to speed things up  

Dave

[johnrt]

1 hour ago, Davey-T said:

It was supposed to speed things up  

Dave

I have been on the edge of buying a lakeside a couple of times, and an electric filter wheel, but this is what has always stopped me - keep it simple, and if it ain't broke...! (I will succumb at some point ) .

[Davey-T]

6 minutes ago, johnrt said:

I have been on the edge of buying a lakeside a couple of times, and an electric filter wheel, but this is what has always stopped me - keep it simple, and if it ain't broke...! (I will succumb at some point ) .

I've got a couple of Lakesides but have only ever used the supplied utility to focus by hand as it saves touching the scope.

Just set up a new mount and got rid of guiding so thought I'd try autofocus, and it is proving very trying 

Dave

[Barry-Wilson]

Lovely John.  Many of the M33s I see on the web seem to be quite 'flat' (mine included) and there must be something in this target and its angular presentation to Earth as it is too common to be poor processing.  I must say however, the dynamic and bright core you have teased out has given M33 a textured relief  and brought the image to life - really exceptional.  Very good work John.

[johnrt]

2 hours ago, Barry-Wilson said:

Lovely John.  Many of the M33s I see on the web seem to be quite 'flat' (mine included) and there must be something in this target and its angular presentation to Earth as it is too common to be poor processing.  I must say however, the dynamic and bright core you have teased out has given M33 a textured relief  and brought the image to life - really exceptional.  Very good work John.

Thank you Barry, I have to say this is possibly my favourite target to image, which is why I always make a return to it at this tie of year. It is a fascinating thing to see galaxies that look so ordered and perfect in their shapes and spirals, whereas M33 is just a bit of a car crash of a place, a real jumble of material!

You're right it can look flat, especially at a shorter focal length, I don't think there is much of a fix for that other than plenty of exposure time!

[Rodd]

Great image--I really like the orangey part--not usually seen.  Is that the Ha?  That's usually red.  This looks really good--almost gives it a 3D look.

[johnrt]

5 hours ago, Rodd said:

Great image--I really like the orangey part--not usually seen.  Is that the Ha?  That's usually red.  This looks really good--almost gives it a 3D look.

Thanks Rodd, I think you're talking about the core Rodd, which contains the older cooler stars which is why it is a yellow / orange hue, and there are some dust lanes running right through there too, which make for some interesting areas to process.

The Ha detail is the ring of red blobs in the arms, and was only added to these areas. 

[johnrt]

I've emailed this one in to Astronomy Now, hoping to get it in print (fingers crossed). 

[Scott]

wow 

[wimvb]

4 hours ago, johnrt said:

I've emailed this one in to Astronomy Now, hoping to get it in print (fingers crossed). 

Good luck, it's a great image

[johnrt]

Thank you both!