A scary night and M33

[MartinB]

On Sunday night we had a rare clear spell here which lasted up to 1.30. Went to set up and the EM200 was dead . Not a happy feeling. Finally, in desperation I changed from mains to battery and everything was fine So just a duff power supply and I have a spare somewhere.

Decided to have another go at getting some luminence data on M33. Set it running and went for some tea. Checked a little later on the monitor - one big doughnut, all the subs were the same. Looked like some weird condensation problem. Stripped down the camera to inspect. Nothing to see. Tried again, all fine so don't know what that was all about. Streuth this isn't a relaxing hobby!

Sat24 showed a mass of cloud on it's way up from the south but managed 3 hours of luminence in 3 minute subs. Have added this to QHY8 colour data from Kelling. I really mangaled the colour data by applying a very poor flat and overwriting the original files. The galaxy is ok but the background was a pig to mend.

QSI 532 with IDAS filter. 60x180 secs and QHY8 about 4hours of 400secs. I suppose it is M33 L OSC Both using Tak FSQ 106

Captured in Maxim, combined and deconvolution in CCDstack and finished in PS

[steppenwolf]

Very nice indeed - considering how diffuse the core of this object is, you have caught some excellent detail in there, Martin - lovely!

[moocher]

Top job Martin!!!!!

Alan:)

[barkis]

What a beauty. Such wonderful colouration.

Very nice job indeed Martin. Pleased the mount problem

was a false alarm. You can do without shocks like that.

Ron.

[NickH]

Hard work pays...good stuff!

[malp]

Lovely image.

Malcolm

[MikeD]

Nice work Martin, shame about overwriting the original colour files with poor flats though.

Mike.

[daz]

You've not had a lot of luck with this one have you??

Still, a cracking result Martin

[Dave Moulton]

Strange goings on with the data capture. donuts sounds like focus shift, I guess that is just to obvious a culprit though.

Are we are own worst crtitics here or what. That result knocks spots off of my best effort on this target. If these are the results when things go wrong I can't wait to see the good stuff.

Are you still using Adaptive optics Martin or is it just used on the SCT pictures

A great result, well done,

Dave

[RobH]

Lovely

Great colour from the OSC, and lovely crisp detail from the QSI.

Cheers

Rob

[Beyond_Vision]

That was well worth all the effort Martin I'm glad you persevered. Nice to see you posting an image again. A very natural looking M33

Regards

Kevin

[brendant]

Fantastic image Martin, beautiful natural processing - top marks.

Brendan

[assouptro]

Lovely image Martin.

You have given me something to aspire to

Bryan.

[MartinB]

Thanks a lot guys. I'm pleased with how the galaxy has come out. I cropped the worst of the background horrors but still had a messy background. To get rid I used a method described by Bob Franke Background Repair With PhotoShop. I've left the background a bit brighter than usual to keep it as natural looking as possible.

Strange goings on with the data capture. donuts sounds like focus shift, I guess that is just to obvious a culprit though.

Are you still using Adaptive optics Martin or is it just used on the SCT pictures

Definitely not focus shift Dave. It was a huge doughnutty halo arising from the centre and I'm thinking it was condensation somewhere in the system, probably the chip cover.

I only use the AO with the SCT. I'm after a narrow band rosette and then it's of with the FSQ and on with the LX200 hopefully for a close up HH by which time it will be galaxy season.

[Tom OD]

Its lovely image. Grat detail and the background has a good smoothness to it. Well done.

Tom

[Taff]

That's a very nice capture of M33 great details.Mark