NGC7331 inspired by johnrt

[RSM]

After seeing the excellent image posted by johnrt of NGC 7331 and Stephan's quintet, I thought I'd give it a go. Several nice clear nights at the end of September gave me the chance. The image attached is WIP, 300+ subs at 3 minutes each (c.15 hrs total exposure time) with flats, darks and superbias. All I've done so far is a background gradient extraction, quick and dirty histogram stretch and a similar quality curves adjustment but already looks like there is plenty of good data in there to work with, so hopefully with a good dose of noise reduction and sharpening and a little more care in the stretching, there could be a nice image in there somewhere. Taken on a Canon 500D and using a coma corrector and dew bands (astrozap from FLO worked a treat) for the first time. 

Cant wait to have time to process this properly, I've counted at least 20 fuzzies so far  

Thanks for looking

Richard. 

[johnrt]

That looks like a cracking start Richard! I'm at work currently so viewing on my phone, I'll be back later to view on my desktop ?

[Dark Horizon]

blimey you've got plenty to go at there... It's great already but i can see you doing lots with this one.

[michael8554]

Hi Richard

Just come in from my second night of several hours on NGC7331 with a 500D, you've given me something to aim for !

Michael

[DanWebster]

It's looking pretty good already, but I looking forward to seeing the final effort.

[ollypenrice]

It's an exciting project, fuzzywise!

Of historical interest, Edouard Stephan discovered the Quintet at Marseille observatory using a telescope made by Foucault of pendulum fame.

Olly

[jsmoraes]

I liked very much your photo. what called my attention is the 3 small galaxies at left. With full view mode we can see very well that two of them seems to be in merging state. Good definition of details.

Congratulations.
I think XiDenoiser can do a good work with noise with NML mode.

[johnrt]

Just back for a proper view on my desktop, there is some great detail in the tidal material in the quintet, the background does come across a little coloured though, a very easy fix. Is there more data coming on this?

[RSM]

Hi, no more data (yet) although depending on how it scrubs up during processing I may look to add some more. Subs had a lot of light pollution (air was quite moist on the evenings I took them) which I'll  manage to get rid of when I process properly. Also this image had no noise reduction so I expect that to smooth out the background and that'll allow me to stretch a bit more and sharpen up a little. I did set up last night but decided to have a go at the bubble nebula instead. Got about 6 hrs worth of subs which looked pretty good at first glimpse this morning. 

[PatrickGilliland]

Super start and love shots with the extra fuzzies, often find them more interesting than the target objects.  Look forward to the final version.

Paddy

[Barry-Wilson]

Lovely image with fuzzy detail a plenty.

The background has gradients and green lurking however I'm sure you'll treat for the final version.  Super stuff.