8.5 hr at the Sombrero Galaxy - M104

[Alfredo Beltran]

Hi

I want to share with you my latest image. It is the Sombrero Galaxy - M104.

I took it from the terrace of my house on the suburban area of Bogotá, Colombia (8 million people city) with a Modified Canon T1i and an IDAS LPS D1 filter. Telescope is a C925 EdgeHD at f10 on a CEM60 mount. Total exposure time is 8.5 hr at ISO 1600. Pre and postprocessed entirely with Pixinsight. Captured with Sequence Generator Pro - SGP.

Thanks for looking!

Alfredo

Link to full resolution M104 image on Flickr

[bottletopburly]

Nice job alfredo 

[RichLD]

Lovely capture, my favourite galaxy by a country mile!

Well done sir 

[ollypenrice]

We have to congratulate you on that one, Alfredo. To capture that from Bogota is a real acheivement. Very nice processing, too, with a soft touch and no attempt to push the data beyond what it has to give.

Muy simpatico!

Olly

[Chris]

Wonderful job, Alfredo ! Really quite something from a big city, with a non cooled camera, and at f/10! Great galaxy to image too  

[Alfredo Beltran]

Thank you all for your encouraging comments!

It was a nice galaxy to image and, because of its size, I opted for f10 to give it a more starring role on the FOV.

I've found that the key is to do the maximum dithering possible during capture win SGP and collect all of the calibration files on the next few days at most. Pixinsight is also a wonderful tool to do the full processing since it lets to pull every single detail of the image.

Alfredo

[nucdoc]

Very nice indeed !

[Star101]

Yes, a lovely image. 

Very low in the sky for me ( too many houses in the way lol )

Thanks for sharing.

[PatrickGilliland]

Nice work - detail looks good and colour is well balanced

[Alfredo Beltran]

8 hours ago, nucdoc said:

Very nice indeed !

Thanks!

 

7 hours ago, Star101 said:

Yes, a lovely image. 

Very low in the sky for me ( too many houses in the way lol )

Thanks for sharing.

Thank you. Fortunately, for us here it passes really near the zenith, and is easier to image. The most northern objects are very difficult from here since we are at just 4.8 degrees north.

 

1 hour ago, PatrickGilliland said:

Nice work - detail looks good and colour is well balanced

Thanks indeed, Patrick.

 

Alfredo

[Rodd]

Wonderful shot.  I have the C11Edge and really like it--though I have never attempted f10 for deep space. You have given me something to think about.  Beautiful,

Rodd

[Alfredo Beltran]

17 minutes ago, Rodd said:

Wonderful shot.  I have the C11Edge and really like it--though I have never attempted f10 for deep space. You have given me something to think about.  Beautiful,

Rodd

Thank you Rodd. The C11 will be more than capable at f10. Worth to try.

Regards 

Alfredo 

[PatrickGilliland]

3 hours ago, Alfredo Beltran said:

Thank you Rodd. The C11 will be more than capable at f10. Worth to try.

Regards 

Alfredo 

 

Just picking up on the whole f speed topic.  If you have sufficient data/sub length it really is not an issue.  In fact my view is that the increase in aperture == lots more photons  My recent M81's and 2's all at F9.  To be honest some of the nicest and cleanest data I have worked with.

Don't get hung up on speed, and 11" scope vs a 5 is collecting nearly 5 times the amount or photons (in terms of aperture area) this results in great data if exposures are right length.

[Alfredo Beltran]

47 minutes ago, PatrickGilliland said:

Just picking up on the whole f speed topic.  If you have sufficient data/sub length it really is not an issue.  In fact my view is that the increase in aperture == lots more photons  My recent M81's and 2's all at F9.  To be honest some of the nicest and cleanest data I have worked with.

Don't get hung up on speed, and 11" scope vs a 5 is collecting nearly 5 times the amount or photons (in terms of aperture area) this results in great data if exposures are right length.

I agree completely with this ??

[Mark at Beaufort]

Wonderful image Alfredo. You must see the best of both Hemispheres from your latitude.

[Alfredo Beltran]

30 minutes ago, Mark at Beaufort said:

Wonderful image Alfredo. You must see the best of both Hemispheres from your latitude.

Thank you Mark

Indeed we have sighting opportunities for both hemispheres.

Alfredo

[Mr Spock]

A lovely subject very nicely captured. Well done.

[Alfredo Beltran]

Thank you very much

[Ouroboros]

Very nice, Alfredo. The galaxy has an ethereal look about it. 

Why did you choose 1600 ISO?  A compromise of image acquisition speed, light pollution, and acceptable guiding I imagine. 

[Alfredo Beltran]

Thank you Ouroboros.

Not really. It was because ISO 1600 has the less read noise for my camera, and thus I chose it to get the most possible detail on the image.

 

Alfredo

[Adam J]

Wow DSLR's and F10 optics dont normally get along so this is a real achievement! I am surprised by you using 1600ISO though as opposed to 800ISO but I suppose that with such a slow scope the balance will shift in respect to the optimal setting and 1600 may win out when 800 is the best option at say F5.

[Alfredo Beltran]

Thank you very much Adam

In fact I use ISO 1600 for narrow band at f2.3 or RGB at f10, because I've found it is the sweet spot because of the low read noise. For rgb at f2.3 I use ISO 800.

Alfredo

 

[Barry-Wilson]

Well done Alfredo - all the compliments fully deserved.  Super image.

[Alfredo Beltran]

Thank you very much Barry

[Adam J]

Interesting, I found the same only for 800. What method are you using to evaluate the noise or is it from eyeballing the final image?

On 4/20/2017 at 18:18, Alfredo Beltran said:

Thank you very much Adam

In fact I use ISO 1600 for narrow band at f2.3 or RGB at f10, because I've found it is the sweet spot because of the low read noise. For rgb at f2.3 I use ISO 800.

Alfredo