NGC 23403 Red and Ha

[Rodd]

This is an experiment of s0rts.  I was blessed with decent seeing (average for me is good, good is so rare its virtually a myth, and 5/5 is a never ordeal).  I am trying to create as good of an image of this target as possible, so I am piling up teh data so that I can elimin ate all but the best and hopefully come up with a good image.  This image is 281 120 sec red subs (9.4 hours) and 173 300 sec ha subs (14.4 hours).  There was no reason to cull the red subs very dramatically, as FWHM values were consistantly below 2.5".  The final FWHM of the red stacdk is 1.94, which is very rare for me to havev a stack come in under 2".   I piled on the Ha for 2 reasons, one, I always manage to lose some of the faint emissions during processing, so I figured I would pile it on and hopefully strengthen the faintest regions.  Also, the Moon came out about 12:00 during a couple days of this shoot, so after shooting red with no Moon, I didn';t want to lose good seeing sky time, so I decided to keep collecting Ha for this target instead of starting a new tareget.  The image should probably be displayed at bin 2, based on the math, but I kept it at Bin 1 for the pixel peepers.  Pardon the the bbackground, which is always the weakest element of my images.  Hopefully I get good nights for the GB and L, which will smooth things out.

I accentuated the Ha a bit more than I usually would becuase its harder to differentiate it in a mono image.  The Ha was added using Pixinsight for those that question PIs ability to handle Ha insertion.  I recall a recent post about this.

TOA 130 with .99x flattener and ASI 1600.  About 24 hours of red and Ha.  AND I STILL COULD USE MORE!!!!

Here's a slightly better core.  Only sio much can be done with a mono stack....by me that is!

 

Edited January 6 by Rodd

[Rodd]

Maybe this will pique interest

[wimvb]

That looks very impressive so far. Eagerly awaiting the final image.

[Rodd]

2 hours ago, wimvb said:

That looks very impressive so far. Eagerly awaiting the final image.

Thanks, Wim. The challenge is only using data from good seeing. Tries my patience.  

[wimvb]

4 hours ago, Rodd said:

The challenge is only using data from good seeing

Agreed, I've all but given up on that luxury. For my latest image (ngc 1023 and ic239), I measured a fwhm between 3.5 and 4". I didn't even bother with collecting luminance. I'm considering giving up on galaxy hunting for a while, and shoot nebulae instead.

[Rodd]

5 hours ago, wimvb said:

Agreed, I've all but given up on that luxury. For my latest image (ngc 1023 and ic239), I measured a fwhm between 3.5 and 4". I didn't even bother with collecting luminance. I'm considering giving up on galaxy hunting for a while, and shoot nebulae instead.

BlurX helps, though some feel AI is not to be trusted 

[wimvb]

7 hours ago, Rodd said:

BlurX helps, 

Certainly, but it's not a miracle worker.

7 hours ago, Rodd said:

some feel AI is not to be trusted

Didn't they say that about cars at one time? 😉