StarTools

Continuing cloudy nights since mid September gave way for 1 clear night last week so took the opportunity to image a well placed dim Galaxy in the constellation of Fornax
Unfortunately seeing was quite poor which reflected in average guiding numbers but at least it was clear until the early hours

NGC 1365 Great Barred Spiral Galaxy
Constellation Fornax
Magnitude 10.2
Size 4 x 3 arc min
56 million light years from Earth


60% Waning Moon
Bortle 8 City suburban skies
6” f6 GSO newt
Skywatcher EQ6-R pro mount
ZWO2600MC OSC cooled to -10C , Gain 100
TS Optics GPU coma corrector
189 x 60 sec subs ( dithered every second sub )
40 x Flats
60 x Bias
PHD2 Multistar guiding ( 0.70 to 0.80 arc sec total )
EQMOD, Stellarium, APT
Stacked in DSS
Processed in Startools V1.8

Noise floor was ridiculous but Wipe did a good job as with the other modules to mitigate it
Used SV Decon again which worked out ok on this noisy data ( Binned at 60% ) Found at least 23 PSF Star samples and reduced iterations to 8
Another couple of hours would have been nice but not to be…… cloudy nights have returned again for another week or two

Comments welcome
Thanks

I'm glad to hear that you had opportunity to do some imaging, Martin. We had one clear evening as well, but only for one or two hours, then dew and fog came up

And that's such a spectacular object. It reminds me of NGC 2903 here under Northern Skys (Leo). These small galaxies are hard to get with our Newtonian's with 750 or 1000 mm focal length. And poor seeing conditions make it even harder, so I guess, you are quite satisfied with it. My take on NGC 2903 last year was a total disaster

I've seen in Stellarium that there's a band of small galaxies nearby. It looks a little bit like the Markarian's Chain. Maybe that would be a nice wide field shot?

And it's nice to hear that SVDecon now works for you

Best regards. Dietmar.

Hi Dietmar ,
Thanks for your comments
Yes very pleased with the result considering the restrictions with my equipment, poor to average conditions and a dim object
I’m sure a few more hours would have exposed more of the arms in more detail
There are so many galaxies in this Fornax region but this is my favourite
Mono is on the cards for me next year ( 2600MM )

Thanks again
Martin