A Needle in the Twilight

[tomato]

This is NGC 4565, the Needle Galaxy, captured over 3 nights in the (for me) rapidly dwindling Nautical darkness. Thanks to a suggestion from @wimvb, I have raised the black level to diminish the blotchy background somewhat, compared to my version entered in the galaxy competition. Me being too hasty as usual. Lots of tiny background galaxies in this region of the sky.

Captured with the dual Esprit 150/ASI 178 rig on a Mesu mk 1 mount, guiding at 0.4-0.5 arcsec total RMS, imaging at 0.94 arcsec per pixel.

L 51 x 3 mins

RGB 15 x 3 mins each, 4.8 hrs total integration. Calibrated and stacked in APP, processed in APP, AP and GIMP. 

Thanks for looking

 

 

[tomato]

Despite the light sky, I think the background could be better, so tried Startools with that end in mind and also attempting to get a bit more detail in the dust lane. On balance  I think I prefer this version.

[Swoop1]

I agree tomato, the second image looks more asthetically pleasing.

It is also easier to pick out the background fuzzies.

Worth the additional processing.

[callisto]

The second ones great 👍

 

Mark

[blameTECHIE]

both look great @tomato and giving me something to aspire to (and now I'm going to have to start looking at startools, the extra work on the 2nd image definitely pays off)

[wimvb]

Very nice rework!

I like the galaxy in v2, and the background in v1. The background in the latest version is a bit too flat for my taste.

Btw, those faint fuzzies near the tip of the Needle: 2.3 - 2.5 Billion light years distant.

[gorann]

Nice image indeed Steve, and I agree with Wim that the needle looks best in version 2 but the sky is better in version one, especially those distant galaxies that Wim mention looks more natural in version 1. Amazing to me that you still have some darkness - here you can read a book outside at midnight (or at least I could when my eyes were younger).

[tomato]

Thanks Goran. Astro darkness disappeared a few weeks ago from my location and the nautical darkness window is barely 2 hours now. Nevertheless, I resolved to keep imaging, and have been pleasantly surprised at the quality of the data, not top notch for sure, both worth processing to a final image. 
I got some data on M63 last night, and the individual subs don’t look too bad so will take that one to completion. At this rate I will get through to the summer solstice and come out the other side.😊

[CCD-Freak]

Great image !!!   Are you using a cooled ASI-178 camera?

 

[tomato]

6 hours ago, CCD-Freak said:

Great image !!!   Are you using a cooled ASI-178 camera?

 

Thanks John,

They are ASI 178 cameras, retrofitted with a Peltier cooler, heat sink and fan. These maintain the sensors at around 3 deg C, which just makes calibration, particularly the darks, a bit more consistent.

[Tomatobro]

Tomatoes ASI 178 under test

[scotty38]

What a great image....

On 12/06/2021 at 22:26, wimvb said:

Btw, those faint fuzzies near the tip of the Needle: 2.3 - 2.5 Billion light years distant.

 

And just think there are probably folk on a planet over there thinking the same about us 🙂

[CCD-Freak]

15 hours ago, Tomatobro said:

Tomatoes ASI 178 under test

Funny....I have been considering doing that to my ASI-178MM. 

I did a cooling mod to an old Meade DSI-II camera and it worked well.  I could get it down to -35C below ambient.  The hardest part was getting it air tight to keep moisture at bay.

[Tomatobro]

I have done three of these cameras so far and we have found taking the temperature down below freezing invites frozen water droplets on the sensor cover.

Not shown in the picture is that we now use a thermostat that regulates the temperature of the sensor to 3c. Sharpcap gives us the sensor temperature so we adjust the thermostat accordingly.

ZWO  do a heater ring kit which we have tried but found the thermostat a better option.

[CCD-Freak]

Once I finally got the chamber sealed and dried out I could go down below freezing without frosting the sensor or circuit board.  There was a temp sensor on the "cold finger" just below the sensor and it was connected to a temperature controller to keep the TEC at the desired setting. I typically ran the DSI-II TEC at -15C. 

If I decide to do this mod to my ASI-178 I will do something similar.