Leo Trio M65, M66, NGC3628 - C80ED

Hi all, I had a go at the 'Leo Trio' Galaxies of M65, M66 and NGC3628 last night, but I think I have a lot of work to do, last night was super clear, but my session was ended early by those pesky clouds again. Here is a go at this lovely group which is a stack of 8 exposures, 6x60sec, 2x90sec, unguided, Canon 300D, at ISO 1600 - hence the noise, with the C80ED. This is a half crop of the original stacked frame to show some detail. It's still very noisy, but I'll try do better next time.... :arrow:
Keith..

Keith - a good deal of work to do there alright

Any idea where the red blotchiness is coming from?

Fair tracking and good focus - I like it.

Of course, I'd like you to keep taking images like this. God help us if you improve....

Dave

Nice capture of the Leo trio Keith, luv the dust lane!

Thanks Lads, I hope to have a go at these again soon, before they are lost in the sun's glare until later in the year.

Any idea where the red blotchiness is coming from?

Probably just bad noise at ISO 1600, they seem to get worse the more I stack

Keith..

There's potential in that image Keith!
Did you take the images in RAW mode or JPEG? A bit more processing should be able to remove some of the noise.

In my limited experience with imaging DSOs with the Canon, I fould that ISO1600 isn't the ideal configuration. Best to keep it to ISO400 I reckon.

Overall though, that's a great effort, especially as it wasn't guided.

I like it !
The galaxies look realistic, if you know what I mean.

I've seen that redness before, its the camera noise, if you get around to taking a dark frame (I often forget), it can get rid of alot of it.

Do you have anyway of guiding the scope?, it would make all the differance and you'd be able to get longer exposures.