Triangulum Galaxy

[JimFox]

This is some older data from earlier in the year. I had to get a permanent license for Pixinsight, and I also ordered permanent licenses for both NoiseXTerminator and BlurXTerminator. So with all of that getting installed, I wanted to test it out, and also test out the NoiseXTerminator, so I dug a bit and found this data on M101, the Triangulum Galaxy.

Now I have gotten spoiled, so I am sorry I don't have the extra Ha data to integrate also, but I think it still turned out pretty cool.

23 - Lights at 120 seconds
30 - Flats
10 - Darks
20 - Flat/Darks
Optolong L-Pro Filter

ASI2600mc Pro - Astro Camera
ASI120mm Mini - Guide Camera
Tamron 150-600mm @600mm
iOptron Gem28 - astro mount
ASIAir Pro - astro computer
DeepSkyStacker - Stacking
Pixinsight - Processing
Photoshop - Finishing Touches


All comments are welcome,

Jim

PS. Hopefully the background looks okay. I ran NoiseXterminator on it. I had darkened the background then which cleaned up the background more, but then it seemed too dark. So this is with the lighter background.

 

[Ben Egbert]

Looks good to me. You will need other Astro guys to get serious critique. Looks like you are being sucked into the black hole of Astro photography

 

[JimFox]

Looks good to me. You will need other Astro guys to get serious critique. Looks like you are being sucked into the black hole of Astro photography

Thanks Ben. The darker version felt too dark to me, so I went with this, but maybe the lack of contrast in the background isn't that good? So yeah, I can't wait for some of the others to comment as I am not sure the best way to go is.

I am sure really enjoying the Deep Space Astro Ben. It's a great extension of the Milky Way and Wide Angle night sky imaging I have been doing anyway for so many years.

It's hard to believe I started imaging the night sky back in the mid 70's with my film cameras. Shooting twilight images when I could, and once it got too dark (which happened quickly when shooting film) I would set up my film camera on a tripod next to my tent out at Joshua Tree with the old cable Remote Releases locked in to do an 8 hour exposure of the night sky. Which of course resulted in star trails. I would set the timer on my new fancy watch that had a timer built in, to wake me up about an hour and a half before sunrise so I could release the shutter. It was one shot a night....

 

[CRTAstro]

Great job Jim ! Maybe a slight Levels/Curves tweak to make it a tad darker would be an improvement for me.

 

[JimFox]

Great job Jim ! Maybe a slight Levels/Curves tweak to make it a tad darker would be an improvement for me.

Awesome thanks Carlos. With all of these new tools I am using, it seems like I have to find my vision again for how I like them to look.

 

[Mike Lewis]

Nice version on this, good contrast of the galaxy against the sky in this one.

But I am confused - as far as I know the Triangulum Galaxy name typically refers to M33 - this is M101?

ML