M33 - Re-Processed

[Xiga]

Hi guys

I thought it would be fun to revisit my first 'proper' data set, i.e anything over an hour. Which, as it turns out, was M33. This was taken back in Oct 2016. 

The data did have issues though. It was early days for me back then in terms of guiding, and the guide graph in Phd on this night was absolutely horrific! Big spikes all over the place. I remember spending ages trying to fix it, but couldn't. In the end, i just started imaging, and couldn't believe my luck when the images didn't show any trailing. Luckily i just got bigger stars, rather than oval ones, or trailing. Also, this was taken before i had the D5300 modded, so it doesn't show up the Ha regions as much as it should. Still, for a stock camera, i don't think it did too bad. The one good thing the data had going for it, were the skies. I took this in Delamont Country Park here in N.I, which i think is a Blue Zone, so pretty good skies. 

19 x 360s (1 hr 54 mins) at ISO 200

Nikon D5300

SW 80ED

HEQ5-Pro

Stacked in PS, and processed mostly in PS. Siril was used for Photometric Colour Calibration and Deconvolution. 

Processing i found difficult i must say. I hadn't realised just how hard a target M33 is tbh. It really needs a lot more exposure than this (goes without saying i know), and i also think this is a target that just needs a lot more aperture than 80mm to really do it justice. 

I tried pushing it as far as i could, without going too far and into cartoon territory. Not sure if i managed it in the end, so all comments welcomed.

After an awful winter here in N.I there are finally some clear skies here tonight, so hopefully some of you guys were able to get out and take advantage of them. The best i could manage was a quick view of the moon, M42, and M45 with the 25x70 Bino's Santa kindly left for me 😁 

Edited January 15, 2020 by Xiga

[souls33k3r]

Mate, that's just gorgeous piece of processing. I always look forward to your post and it goes without saying that with the 80mm aperture, you've done this target far more justice than you think. It's just beautiful. 

[Xiga]

2 hours ago, souls33k3r said:

Mate, that's just gorgeous piece of processing. I always look forward to your post and it goes without saying that with the 80mm aperture, you've done this target far more justice than you think. It's just beautiful. 

Thanks Ahmed, you're too kind!

I'm not completely happy with it I must say. I had several goes at processing it over the last week or so, with each one a failure but for different reasons. In the end, due to processing fatigue, I got a bit lazy with the sharpening and NR, and the slight unevenness is showing through in places, but in any case it should hopefully be a big improvement on the original version.

[tooth_dr]

Nice one Ciarán, I’ve always found m33 hard to get the contrast right. This is an example of great balance.

Not great this year so far I must say. Have only grabbed a handful of sub optimal subs. 

[Xiga]

Thanks Adam. You're absolutely right, the contrast on M33 is a hard one. Often what looks good zoomed out, doesn't look good at a all zoomed in, and vice-versa. I need to tweak this slightly, but after looking at it solidly for a few nights on the trot I need to leave it for a bit before I can dive back in, lol.

Hopefully the UK weather improves for all you guys. 

[teoria_del_big_bang]

My words that is a nice image, so clear and so much detail without being over-stretched. 

Steve

[souls33k3r]

12 hours ago, Xiga said:

Thanks Ahmed, you're too kind!

I'm not completely happy with it I must say. I had several goes at processing it over the last week or so, with each one a failure but for different reasons. In the end, due to processing fatigue, I got a bit lazy with the sharpening and NR, and the slight unevenness is showing through in places, but in any case it should hopefully be a big improvement on the original version.

You're just being over critical about it for no reason mate. If I could achieve even 10% of what you're able to produce, I'd be a happy bunny but then I guess this is what differentiates from a good result and an excellent result

[Michael Hogan]

Love to see what you could do if given my TSA-120FT and a proper mount even a EQ6-R Pro never mind EQ8-R Pro you have reached

a skill level that has way surpassed you Equipment with a cooled CCD you could get APODs dont mean to be harsh.

[tooth_dr]

48 minutes ago, Michael Hogan said:

Love to see what you could do if given my TSA-120FT and a proper mount even a EQ6-R Pro never mind EQ8-R Pro you have reached

a skill level that has way surpassed you Equipment with a cooled CCD you could get APODs dont mean to be harsh.

A belted modded HEQ5 is an ideal match for that focal length, and a proper mount as well.  Just proves you don’t need a Takahashi to produce great images. 

Edited January 18, 2020 by tooth_dr

[Michael Hogan]

2 hours ago, tooth_dr said:

A belted modded HEQ5 is an ideal match for that focal length, and a proper mount as well.  Just proves you don’t need a Takahashi to produce great images. 

Are you saying that a premium Apo and mount doesnt make a difference go to astrobin look at the guys with best images

who are well known look at their images before and after they got their new equipment from EQ6-R Pro to 1100 GTO

or EQ8 to 10 Micron GM 2000 HPS II from great image to APOD the better the mount the better the image also the CCD

 

[tooth_dr]

5 hours ago, Michael Hogan said:

Are you saying that a premium Apo and mount doesnt make a difference go to astrobin look at the guys with best images

who are well known look at their images before and after they got their new equipment from EQ6-R Pro to 1100 GTO

or EQ8 to 10 Micron GM 2000 HPS II from great image to APOD the better the mount the better the image also the CCD

 

Where did I say that in my post?  A mount that guides at 0.6"/px above, shooting at 1.6"/px, seems ok to me.  

[Xiga]

On ‎18‎/‎01‎/‎2020 at 20:36, Michael Hogan said:

Love to see what you could do if given my TSA-120FT and a proper mount even a EQ6-R Pro never mind EQ8-R Pro you have reached

a skill level that has way surpassed you Equipment with a cooled CCD you could get APODs dont mean to be harsh.

Thanks Michael. I definitely feel ready for an upgrade, and in an ideal world, I would have done so by now. Work and family life are taking up all my time (and money!) for now, so it's not the right time for it. All in good time! I do actually have a Qhy163c i picked up 2nd hand some 9 months ago. To this day i still haven't produced 1 single image with it though, such is life. Still, i'm not completely convinced it will be a significant upgrade from what i have at the moment. Time will tell.

On ‎19‎/‎01‎/‎2020 at 05:06, tooth_dr said:

Where did I say that in my post?  A mount that guides at 0.6"/px above, shooting at 1.6"/px, seems ok to me.  

While i would *love* a bigger mount (for galaxies), the HEQ5-Pro is a solid performer for me right now, and as Adam says, perfectly suited to my imaging scale. For now anyways!

 

Edit - looking at this again now, it really needs re-worked. Too much sharpening....ugh.

Edited January 20, 2020 by Xiga