M33 Triangulum galaxy

[Bluesboystig]

Fourth DSO captured ever, this time I tried M33 from my garden in Bortle 6. I managed to get 104x100" subs for a total of almost 3h of integration time, ISO 800. 20 Darks, 20 Bias frames, 25 flats. I tried to manually stack and calibrate in Siril without using biases and darks (just subtracting the offset manually), but it didn't quite work. I'll give it another go to play with Siril though.

Equipment: WO z61 with flattener, SA GTI, Canon 2000d (unmodded), Optolong L-Pro. Siril: crop, background extraction, photometric colour calibration, stretch, green noise removal. GIMP: contrast, stretch, curves. 

Keen to hear feedback and opinions/suggestions. I think that for just under 3h of data it looks good. I'm realising that detail require a lot of integration time, so in the future I might start taking on longer projects over multiple nights. An Asiair mini and guiding camera will help with that hopefully. 

Thanks for your comments, they really help me understand more about this awesome hobby and how to improve. 

Edited September 25, 2023 by Bluesboystig

[Mark2022]

Really nice shot Stig. You've captured the colour in the galaxy and the stars really well. I like wider field shots too rather than just a galaxy or nebula or whatever taking up the entire frame. These sort of shots you have here give the 'experience' of the object hanging in space within its surroundings.

[geeklee]

I think you've captured a great shot with the equipment Stig - nice natural colour with good detail to enjoy in the galaxy itself.  Nice balanced background too (a little bit of noise but reading your notes above, that's understandable without any NR)

36 minutes ago, Bluesboystig said:

An Asiair mini and guiding camera will help with that hopefully. 

The guide camera should help if the above is unguided - just helping you tidy up those star shapes a little more and let you focus on the next thing (there seems to always be a next thing 🤣)

 

[Bluesboystig]

9 minutes ago, geeklee said:

I think you've captured a great shot with the equipment Stig - nice natural colour with good detail to enjoy in the galaxy itself.  Nice balanced background too (a little bit of noise but reading your notes above, that's understandable without any NR)

The guide camera should help if the above is unguided - just helping you tidy up those star shapes a little more and let you focus on the next thing (there seems to always be a next thing 🤣)

 

I was played around with Topaz Denoise AI (the trial version). It seems to work very nicely, but because it's the trial version it places a massive watermark on the picture. I'm thinking of purchasing it though, the result looked really nice. I'm also thinking that longer integration times will help to get a much better SNR. 

Re the star shapes: what do you think needs improving? Thanks

[geeklee]

59 minutes ago, Bluesboystig said:

I'm also thinking that longer integration times will help to get a much better SNR. 

Definitely.  Those of us in lighter skies need to find the right cut off between clear sky/time/results!

1 hour ago, Bluesboystig said:

Re the star shapes: what do you think needs improving? Thanks

When you mentioned a guider could be added, I wondered if that might help tighten up the stars a little and any slight elongation (top to bottom to my eye looking in the middle area).

I'm terrible for viewing images at full size.  Much like the noise that was pretty much invisible looking at the forum size, the stars are also a minor thing.  You've done a great job here.

[tomato]

This is not an easy object to capture depth and detail, so this is great result for 3 hrs and a DSLR.

Longer subs and more of them will help a lot.

[Paul M]

As above, great job.

A big plus is that you haven't pushed it too far. It's a very pleasant image that reflects the low surface brightness of the outer arms. I know I'd have strangled it to death! 

[AstroMuni]

On 25/09/2023 at 15:10, Bluesboystig said:

Fourth DSO captured ever, this time I tried M33 from my garden in Bortle 6. I managed to get 104x100" subs for a total of almost 3h of integration time,

Great image 👍