The Eyes! The Eyes!!!

[DaveS]

Oh the horror! lol

This is definitely Work In Progress, and is a placeholder for next year

As a counterpoint to @geeklee's humungous Virgo Cluster mosaic, this is just The Eyes, done with the ODK 12 and ASI 533 camera using Baader Luminance and Bessel filters.

I set out to  collect 4 hours of Bin 1 Luminance in 10 min subs on the 6th May, but only 2 1/2 hours were useable, mostly due to cloud. 3 Hours of RGB ( Bessel B, V, R) in Bin 2 and 10 min subs were captured on the 9th.

Calibration and Stacking were carried out in AstroArt 8, as was the initial RGB synthesis. The files were passed to PixInsight for BlurX, NoiseX, Gradient Correction (To take out a bit of RGB gradient) and GHS. The LRGB synthesis and slight Saturation Boost were carried out in AstroArt 8, saved as a PNG. I tried to apply a touch of Unsharp Mask but the data is too thin to take it, even at the lowest level.

I need more data, and more importantly better data, as many of the subs were below what I would normally accept. It's just barely enough to make a LRGB image. I would say 12 hours minimum, with 24 hours the target. But that will be for next year as I'm closing Galaxy Season for this year.

 

[tomato]

Well it is pretty decent for the integration time you have and much, much better than nothing at all which is where you thought you would be when I posted my effort a while back.👍🏼

[DaveS]

Oh, and I'll add that I used SPCC in PI for the colour calibration,

[ollypenrice]

The image scale is fantastic. This will just get better and better with more time, if so you choose. Very impressive.

Olly

[DaveS]

Thanks Olly and tomato. No more data for this year but very definitely on my target list for next Galaxy Season.

In stretching I could see traces of tidal structures between the galaxies, but far too noisy to keep in the final stretch. More data, more better!

[geeklee]

On 11/05/2024 at 13:51, DaveS said:

This is definitely Work In Progress, and is a placeholder for next year

Great to see some significant detail that these have to offer Dave.  And even smaller galaxies coming through as well that would barely register or being about a pixel on a shorter focal length.  Nice one.