M94

[Petergoodhew]

M94 - another beauty of a galaxy, but tricky to process because of the high dynamic range. The core is intensely bright whereas the outer parts lurk just above the noise level - so I grabbed lots of luminance. 

52x600s luminance and 20x300s for each RGB channel.  Captured on the TMB in Spain - I would have found this impossible from west London!

Comments and suggestion as always most welcome.

 

[geoflewis]

Wow Peter, that's a cracker.

[Petergoodhew]

18 minutes ago, geoflewis said:

Wow Peter, that's a cracker.

Thanks Geof.  It's a real beauty isn't it - and so nice of it to present itself face-on for us!

[ollypenrice]

Wow, stunning! I've never tried this one but what a beauty it is. Great job all round.

Olly

[geoflewis]

7 minutes ago, Petergoodhew said:

Thanks Geof.  It's a real beauty isn't it - and so nice of it to present itself face-on for us!

Yes, a real beauty and your image does it proud. I had a go at this with my C14 this time last year (actually I just noticed it was exactly 1 year ago today) from my home in Norfolk, but my <5 hours barely revealed the outer halo and had very little star colour. Follow the link if you are interested... https://www.astrobin.com/288880/

Cheers, Geof

 

 

[Petergoodhew]

1 hour ago, ollypenrice said:

I've never tried this one but what a beauty it is

Thanks Olly.  Now I never thought I would get to a galaxy before you!  I've never seen another galaxy quite like it.

[whatablanker]

Great image. Not sure if I can get this from my back garden but I might give it go if I can.

[Petergoodhew]

10 hours ago, geoflewis said:

Yes, a real beauty and your image does it proud. I had a go at this with my C14 this time last year (actually I just noticed it was exactly 1 year ago today) from my home in Norfolk, but my <5 hours barely revealed the outer halo and had very little star colour. Follow the link if you are interested... https://www.astrobin.com/288880/

Cheers, Geof

 

 

Geof, yes the outer ring is really tricky but if you have dark enough skies more data should bring it out. Having said that, you've captured some fine detail of the inner core which is the part that has those handsome dust lanes. With the dynamic range I pulled down the brightness of the central part to balance out the intensity as it tends to blow out. Even without the outer ring you've a nice-looking capture there.

[swag72]

This is a very nice galaxy image..... love it ??..... you've captured some great detail. Just one comment and I see it in many of your images, your stars always seem a bit magenta and not blue...... 

[Petergoodhew]

1 minute ago, swag72 said:

your stars always seem a bit magenta and not blue

Thanks Sara, and especially for the observation about the star colours. I will pay more attention to this in future.  Feedback like this really helps me improve my processing.

[geoflewis]

2 hours ago, Petergoodhew said:

Even without the outer ring you've a nice-looking capture there.

Thanks Peter, I need to shoot more subs for longer integration, but our skies are so unpredictable that I just try to get (just) enough LRGB in one or 2 sessions to produce an image. Cheers, Geof