NGC 3718 & 3729

[Gerr]

These two galaxies in Ursa Major are of lenticular and barred spiral design approximately 52million light years from earth.

I like the warped s-shape of NGC3718 in particular - pretty unusual.

Images were obtained in two hours of integration time (120x60 secs at ISO800).

Canon 650D. SW200P. Optolong L-Pro filter. 

DSS and Photoshop.

Gerr.

[DaveS]

Pretty good for just 2 hours, NGC 3718 is a real swine to image. BTW that little group of 5 galaxies to the right is Hickson 56, at 425 MLY!

[Gerr]

4 minutes ago, DaveS said:

Pretty good for just 2 hours, NGC 3718 is a real swine to image. BTW that little group of 5 galaxies to the right is Hickson 56, at 425 MLY!

Aha - I did wander about those ones.

I do think I’m lucky getting ‘decentish’ images  with my short integration times and ‘basic’ DSLR camera as this hobby can become very expensive very quickly!! I’m still finding the limits with my equipment and processing techniques  before I splash the cash!!!

Thanks,

Gerr.

[DaveS]

Those tidal tails around NGC 3718 are *very* faint, need a lot of data from dark skies. I've been fighting 13 hours or so of data from a SQI 21.66 (Est) location and it' proving to be a real fight.

[Tommohawk]

Great image!

I've imaged around Ursa Major quite a bit but somehow never picked up on this. Yet another one to put on the list!

[Gerr]

46 minutes ago, DaveS said:

Those tidal tails around NGC 3718 are *very* faint, need a lot of data from dark skies. I've been fighting 13 hours or so of data from a SQI 21.66 (Est) location and it' proving to be a real fight.

I struggle to get long integration times (3.5 hrs is my max so far!!!) but multiple sessions on same target will help me there. Only so much seeing quality from terra firma!!

Gerr.

[geeklee]

5 hours ago, Gerr said:

Images were obtained in two hours of integration time (120x60 secs at ISO800).

Excellent Gerr, you've still grabbed a lot for 2 hours.  As @DaveS mentioned, those tails peeling off from NGC 3718 just get fainter and fainter.  I stuck ~11 hours on my version and still couldn't get as far as I'd have hoped.  Looking forward to Dave's darker sky version though!

[DaveS]

At the moment I'm fighting stupidly bad flat calibration, and running out of ideas. You'd think that with the kit in my sig it would be easy, but it's been anything but.

[Gerr]

2 hours ago, Tommohawk said:

Great image!

I've imaged around Ursa Major quite a bit but somehow never picked up on this. Yet another one to put on the list!

When I first started astrophotography ( in 2019 - the year I got my first proper mount and modded camera) I never thought there would be so many wonderful targets to capture!  This list just keeps growing and keeping me hooked. 

What a fantastic hobby we share!!

Gerr.

[Gerr]

31 minutes ago, DaveS said:

At the moment I'm fighting stupidly bad flat calibration, and running out of ideas. You'd think that with the kit in my sig it would be easy, but it's been anything but.

Your kit is unfamiliar to me (and looks complicated!!!) 😂

Gerr.

[DaveS]

Well it's no more complicated than any other mount / 'scope / camera set up. A bit more expensive than most perhaps. In some ways it's simpler as there's no guide camera / 'scope or OAG involved. But flattening the subs is doing my head in.

[Tommohawk]

1 hour ago, DaveS said:

At the moment I'm fighting stupidly bad flat calibration, and running out of ideas. You'd think that with the kit in my sig it would be easy, but it's been anything but.

Don't want to hijack the thread, but fwiw I've given up using flats and do the correction routine for light pollution in Astropixel Processor. This fixes gradients / vignetting and works really well in most cases esp as I don't have any discernible dust in system. Apologies to OP!

[Gerr]

Fortunately taking flats for a DSLR is pretty much straightforward. That’s the advantage of a simple kit I suppose??? I’m not one for the complex stuff!!!

Gerr.