NGC 300 is often considered a member of the Sculptor group, although probably in the foreground and bound gravitationally to NGC 55. Quite a pretty and colourful galaxy this one, with lots of HII regions scattered throughout and groups of young hot blue stars.
It's so close to us (only a mere 6Mly away) that I can't even properly fit her into my c14's fov, so i thought I'd crank the Hyperstar out for the first time in AGES and with the benefit of a string of clear nights in a run (on a new moon), throw some proper hours at it.
So here is the result of 28hrs total integration - miraculously shot all within the same week!! All using the Antila triband RGB filter. A future project will be to shoot at 2670mm fl with the 3nm Ha/oiii dualband and see all those emissions in their full glory!
C14 non edge @f1.9 with the Starizona Hyperstar v3 (f1.9, 680ish mm fl)
EQ8 pro
Asi2600mc pro gain 0
Asi220mm / guidescope
ZWO EAF
ASIAIR pro / APP / PI
Comments and suggestions welcome. Thanks for looking!
Great job Dave! Excellent target for that big scope! That triband filter works a treat! Great colour separation and definition in the Ha regions. Very nice!
Dave ,
You’ve made the most of our clear nights in Sydney over the past couple of weeks , superb image of a difficult target.
Huge effort too !
NGC 300 is such a faint almost translucent galaxy , the spirals are quite broad and sparse compared to M83 and Pavo etc..however you’ve managed to pull out some really good detail with that monster rig.
That Triband filter has also surprisingly picked up distinct RGB colour as well which is difficult under our LP.
Well done and would love to see a longer focal length version for sure.
Cheers
Martin
You've really got that big beast of a scope dialled-in.
Cheers Pete- it's been a while since I've used the Hyperstar - well over a year. I had to look through my astro notebook to remember what spacers/shims I needed to get it right... but was pleasantly surprised that everything was pretty much still aligned so could get imaging straight away. f1.9 can be a pain when things aren't dialled in right!
Great job Dave! Excellent target for that big scope! That triband filter works a treat! Great colour separation and definition in the Ha regions. Very nice!
Thanks mate - yeah it's a good target for the hyperstar as it's just a tad too big to fit in my fov at f7, and being a fairly dim one with lowish surface brightness imaging at f1.9 certainly speeds things up. I was really impressed with the detail that was still picked up at only 680mm fl too. There so much colour in there that comes out with the extra integration
Dave ,
You’ve made the most of our clear nights in Sydney over the past couple of weeks , superb image of a difficult target.
Huge effort too !
NGC 300 is such a faint almost translucent galaxy , the spirals are quite broad and sparse compared to M83 and Pavo etc..however you’ve managed to pull out some really good detail with that monster rig.
That Triband filter has also surprisingly picked up distinct RGB colour as well which is difficult under our LP.
Well done and would love to see a longer focal length version for sure.
Cheers
Martin
Thanks Martin - It has a bright core but as you say those spiral arms are really faint. I wasn't sure how far they extended but knew with the c14 @ f1.9 and enough hours I can go super deep. How good is it when you can spend some real time on a project!!
I found the triband RGB really helpful to cut down some of the LP and provide a bit more contrast - especially with this setup. They are marketed to provide better colour balance but I found there is a significant red bias - I used SPCC in Pixinsight to fix that and the end result I thin is quite good.
Stunning Dave and you get that from your light polluted neighbourhood?
If I didn't have so many big trees and mountains around I should try for some nebulae, I've always wanted to but generally get stuck with the moon and occasional planet shot, except for Orion.
My images through my small gear is never going to look like what you get through the 14" unit with the EQ8 mount but I happily accept that, I play with what I have.
A future project will be to shoot at 2670mm fl with the 3nm Ha/oiii dualband and see all those emissions in their full glory!
That gave me an idea. I have been doing this same galaxy but with just a UV/IR Cut filter and an ASI533MC Pro with a ZWO 107FF quadruplet. I was quite happy with that but you have challenged me to do the same with an Optalong L-Extreme filter. I managed just 90 minutes of 300 sec subs at Gain 100 last night and boy, as you say, those emission areas really do pop.
As usual, I had to quit because the battery I was using ran low on juice and ASIair needs the extra grunt.
I am puzzling how to get the best of both by combining the 2 sets of images. Not sure how to do that.
Stunning Dave and you get that from your light polluted neighbourhood?
If I didn't have so many big trees and mountains around I should try for some nebulae, I've always wanted to but generally get stuck with the moon and occasional planet shot, except for Orion.
My images through my small gear is never going to look like what you get through the 14" unit with the EQ8 mount but I happily accept that, I play with what I have.
Hi Leo - I really appreciate the comments mate. Yes that's all from my B7 backyard. I've found that I really need in the region of 30hrs for broadband targets to be able to get a decent result - otherwise as soon as I start stretching and processing the detail falls to pieces. There are certainly things you can do with a 14" scope that you can't do with other gear, but there's a stack of targets that I can't even try to attempt from my location. The moon/planets are where I'll be focusing for the rest of the month!
That gave me an idea. I have been doing this same galaxy but with just a UV/IR Cut filter and an ASI533MC Pro with a ZWO 107FF quadruplet. I was quite happy with that but you have challenged me to do the same with an Optalong L-Extreme filter. I managed just 90 minutes of 300 sec subs at Gain 100 last night and boy, as you say, those emission areas really do pop.
As usual, I had to quit because the battery I was using ran low on juice and ASIair needs the extra grunt.
I am puzzling how to get the best of both by combining the 2 sets of images. Not sure how to do that.
More experimenting coming up.
Hi Peter - yes there's heaps of interesting detail there in narrowband - but the trick is how to present it in a meaningful / attractive way.
Option 1: Present as a NB only image (i've seen this done before for galaxies such as M33 / SMC, and it can be quite beautiful
Option 2: Combine the R+G+B & Ha+Oiii in PI or APP or PS etc. Creating layers allows some control as to the intensity, and using tools such as continuum subtraction in PI can allow a more balanced final product. I think this is personal preference, as I know I find it tacky when a distant faint galaxy is presented with overpowering Ha regions that seem disproportionate.
Option 3: Gif image with the Broadband / NB images flashing alternating. This is actually what I'm thinking of doing as you kind of get the best of both worlds - but until I've tried it I have no idea if I can pull it off yet...
Look forward to your future experimenting - let us know how it goes!!
That's a great result Dave and love the wide field
Plenty of interesting bits and pieces showing up across the galaxy disc.
This galaxy has a lot to offer, due to its close proximity it has plenty of details to showcase and like M83, even some near stellar resolution if the seeing plays ball . The addition of full FL data should be very cool
That's a great result Dave and love the wide field
Plenty of interesting bits and pieces showing up across the galaxy disc.
This galaxy has a lot to offer, due to its close proximity it has plenty of details to showcase and like M83, even some near stellar resolution if the seeing plays ball . The addition of full FL data should be very cool
Mike
Hi Mike - thanks for the comments. I'm really glad I decided to do the widefield on this one - as the c14 at f7 (~2670mm) has such as small fov that the galaxy is jammed right in and you loose a bit of those spirals. The other advantage is the speed... with 30hrs @ f1.9 (if I can tame the beast) those spiral arms have a lot more body and substance, and the extents are easily seen. Looks like a completely different galaxy from the almost translucent/ghost-like appearance of my earlier attempts at shorter integrations. This data needed only a small stretch and virtually zero sharpening - mainly just star reduction, gradient & colour correction due to the filter i was using.
I'm not sure if i've resolved any of those blue supergiants - but their influence is clearly obvious. Lots of beautiful colour all round!
. The addition of full FL data should be very cool 
