M63 - Sunflower Galaxy

[Tim]

Having been most impressed with MartinB's picture if this target I though't I'd have a go, to see whether I could finally wrestle anything decent from the C9.25 now that I am off axis guiding it.

I learnt an important lesson with this one. The Celestron OAG is a great piece of kit which allows the prism to be rotated to find a guide star. However, I forgot to remember to take the flats before rotating the camera again, which rendered my flats useless. Shame as I took 50 of them . So the pic isn't what it could be, although pixinisight did its best, it's not quite the same as proper flats. The seeing was a bit dodgy and the stars have bloated, but I was pleased to see the colour that came through with the QHY8, and that it had picked out the pinky red Ha areas too. I think there is a trailed star in there somewhere, but I have no more time to spend on this one, might try again.

26 x 600 secs, C9.25 @ f6.3 + QHY8.

Thanks for looking.

TJ

[steppenwolf]

Lovely image with some really nice colour and detail - where the heck are you getting these clear skies from?

[Tim]

Pics taken 2nd April Steve. Been cloudy here for over a week now.

[ollypenrice]

I agree. Great colour.

Olly

[centroid]

That's a 'goodun' Tim.

Nice colour and detail.

Dave

[barkis]

That's a little humdinger TJ.

Ron.

[CELESCOPE]

Thats a corker Tim ,lovely and deep and i just love that colour , spot on.

Rog:)

[Imahumanbeing]

Beautiful picture TJ, awesome detail and colour.

[Mike Hodgson]

I'd love to create something as nice as that.

[Doc]

A very good shot TJ. Love the colour and the formations within the spiral arms.

[Beyond_Vision]

Very nicely captured and processed Tim

Regards

Kevin

[Tim]

Thanks for the nice comments. I'm still kicking myself for messing up the flats, but I have done a quick restack minus the sub that had a line off the stars, so just 4 hours of exposure now. Also, M63 has a little side on friend in the background, shame to crop him out. I have tried something different with the stars, while I am not in love with them, I like them better than the first image, and the technique used, once refined could well be very helpful for these long focal length shots.

Cheers

[RichieJarvis]

Very nice Tim - lovely processing and capture you've got there...

Wish I had a narrow field scope One day.....

[RobH]

That's come out very nicely Tim. As others have said, great colour.

Cheers

Rob

[Les Tilly]

Very Nice TJ I started imaging this last night but the wind picked up so bad I had to stop after 40 minutes of subs, the color is very nice Great job

Les

[glennbech]

You have got som great detail in the darker dust lanes in the arms "in front" of the galaxy. Your second post has sacrificed some of that detail to achieve a smoother image I think (?).

Excellent shot!!

[rich_t]

Hi,

Do you get much vignetting on the QHY8 with the c9.25 and the f6.3 reducer? Do you have to crop it at all?

The picture's come out great, excellent stuff.

Cheers,

Rich.

[MartinB]

Nice work Tim, the set up has worked well.

Have you tried using your flats? A lot is made of this orientation business but it matters not when it comes to removing dust motes. In many situations it doesn't make that much difference when dealing with vignetting either. Your flats shouldn't be useless.

[Sam]

Great image TJ, just been observing this galaxy - can't see as much as your image though - but got the shape and the bright core.

Sam

[ZOG]

That was well worth the effort TJ. Lovely image.

[Tim]

Martin,

yes, the flats were used but at the expense of a large crop. The OAG cuts into one side with an odd shaped shadow. All the dust motes are removed though which is ok.

Cheers

[Psychobilly]

Fine pair of images TJ...

Based on your images I need to keep an eyeout for an OAG to use with the 8" do you ever struggle for guidestars using them...

Peter...

[Dangerous-Dave]

Cracking shot, wish I could get galaxy shots like this!

[Tim]

Peter,

For the 8" you can find no better OAG than the Celestron one. It is highly adjustable, and relatively cheap. (Compared to the TS one).

You need an Exview SuperHAD chip guidecam. I use a DSI pro, but there are a few available. A less sensitive camera would struggle.

Some targets, nearer the milky way are very easy, and you have a choice of bright stars, this image was very tricky and I had to rotate the OAG to get a star, and even then it was unbelievably faint, but with steady seeing it was ok, PHD pinged all night though.

The Celestron OAG is more adjustable than any other I think. I'll take mine to Lucksall if you like. The hardest part is getting the cameras parfocal, as spacing to flatteners etc is critical.