NGC2903 L-Ha/R-G-B *re-edit @ post #10*

[MikeD]

Hi all.

I got me some clear skies on Saturday night, so took the opportunity to try to grab some colour for this shot.

As the clear nights have been far and few lately I opted for binned x2 colour data.

the image is now

54 @ 5 mins L

9 @ 20 mins Ha

15 @ 4 mins Bin x 2 Each for the RGB

I do have another 15 @ 5 mins L shot on Saturday but have not got around to a new luminance processing as yet.

The colour was a real pain to process( I am having real trouble with flats for some reason).

This still needs more Ha data but its getting there.

Mike.

[Rob_Jn]

Excellent image Mike! Nice processing too, your problems with the flats don't show at all.

Rob

[Whippy]

Looking good there Mike, although I see what you're saying. I would have expected to see more Ha 'dust' in there but I like the slightly muted colour. I think it gives it a more natural look .

Tony..

[MikeD]

Thanks guys.

Mike.

[FranckiM06]

It is great shot and so much details in there. Excellent and so beautiful image. We can see the great arms.

Franck

[MartinB]

There's a lot going on in there Mike. Another terrific galaxy shot from you

[peter shah]

great stuff mike it has superb detail

[MikeD]

thanks again all.

[rich_t]

Cracking detail throughout the galaxy, well worth all the exposure time and effort that has been put in to it.

Rich.

[MikeD]

I went back to the Ha and RGB data for this and did a re-process.

This time I pushed the red harder before mixing it 50/50 with the Ha, which was also pushed harder.

The Ha is deeper and the dust lanes have a better colour too.

Mike.

[shallowskies]

Very inspiring work

David

[MartinB]

Yes, I reckon that 2nd process was worthwhile. Doesn't look pushed at all and you've controlled the noise very nicely. the lanes show very well but still have a nice natural look.

One thought, looking at your image and capture details, you colour subs seem long given that they were binned. This can lead to over saturated and bloated stars. A lot of people blame the bloat on binning but it's usually down to over long subs. Given that the read noise of binned subs is 1/4 that of unbinned you can go really short with the subs and just grab a load more of them. This preserves a lot of star colour and can keep them a bit tighter.

[Tom OD]

Excelent pic, and I prefer the second version with more Ha. Well done.

Tom.

[Darth Takahashi]

Fantastic capture I especially like the second, reprocessed image, lots of detail in the image and the dust lanes etc...

[MikeD]

Thanks guys.

Martin that makes a lot of sense. I am not sure why I went for 4 minutes.

I usually go for 2.5 mins when binning colour and to be honest I never usually bin the colour at all.

I did have a final go at processing this a few days ago with another 15 luminance subs added (with the stars in mind) but like you say the brighter stars are pretty much fully saturated.

http://stargazerslounge.com/imaging-deep-sky/133686-ngc2903-final-image.html

Mike.

[mdstuart]

Just love this galaxy. Your picture makes me wish I had a spaceship to go and visit it!

Mark