New image - M94

Folks - for your delectation... Got the polar alignment better tonight - I managed a single unguided exposure of 180 seconds with no perceptible drift.

I took 5 100 sec exposures of GSC 325-964 to start the task of setting up for photometry. I've still work to do on the image but initial indications from Aladin are that I managed to get down to mag 17 at least.

Anyhow, the image below was a bunch of 40 sec exposures. I like the detail in the outer disc of the galaxy. (Dave P - might be one to have a go at honing your processing skills?).

Its only 17K

Cheers

Dave McD



www.astroshack.net/gallery/M94.php

Details:
M94 - Galaxy, Canes Venatici
14/05/05 00:10 UTC
28 x 40 sec images (auto dark subtract)
Meade DSI
AP1200 mount
C8 SCT
F6.3 reducer
Processing: MaximDL, Fits liberator, Photoshop

Great shot Dave. That mount is really pulling its weight (if u pardon the pun).

One suggestion is that you increase the dynamic range of your photos by stretching the histogram a bit. See the way the center is all bright and the edges arrive sharply? Tweaking the histogram will allow you get a much smoother transition from bright to dark across the entire galaxy.

Keep up the great work!!!

Aw Dave, cool shot, well worth the effort, I was just reading the binocular highlight today in this months S&T on M94, I hope to have a look at it tonight.
I love to see those spiral arms, maybe you could become a supernova hunter???

Keith..

Dave.
I like the detial in the arms, have you tried photoshop to remove the overglow in the core?

Thanks for the feedback folks.

I'm really honing my tracking skills at the moment and figuring out the magnitude limts of the setup I have. This is in preparation for possible photometry work. So, I've rather neglected my proceesing skills and pretty much left it up to the software (auto settings) so far.

I've read numerous articles and books that show me how to do this - especially reducing bright cores whilst keeping fine detail. So, hopefully I can do a bit of that soon. But its not a priority.

Funnilly enough, I was asked to image a suspected nova a week or so ago. The bloke in the US couldn't image at his local time (daylight). But unfortunately the tracking was so poor that I couldn't do it... I was offered a mention in the discovery document if I managed to get something...

Thanks again for the input- its appreciated. Hopefully I can help in some way in the sky atlas project.

Dave McD