M33 visual

[decay]

Hi All,

lately there have been a few nights with a few clear hours here at my location. I used them to capture some photons of M33. Don’t know, if it’s worth sharing, but anyway here it is:

m33_2d_1-2.jpg (545.72 KiB) Viewed 3012 times

- 200/1000 GSO Newtonian / SkyWatcher EQ-5
- Baader MPCC
- UV / IR cut filter
- EOS 2000Da, APT
- 50/200 Guide Scope, ASI 120 MC, PHD2

- 110 x 30s + 90 x 60s @ ISO 800 (~ 2.4 hours)
- flats, darks, bias
- ASTAP

This was the first time that I combined data of two nights. Temperature dropped below 0 degrees and there was ice on the scope and even on the screen of the notebook. My intention was to capture some Ha as well and to use it with NBAccent module, but I had no luck with the weather here up to now. And the forecast for the next days doesn’t look fine. Maybe next year …

I tried to do the rendition like Ivo did with the dataset of the Ikarus Observatory project and with the M33 example in the documentation of the NBAccent module:
viewtopic.php?t=2148
https://www.startools.org/modules/narrowband-accents

I read, this poor galaxy passed M31, was mixed up and therefore it now looks like the way it does. Not easy to process. In Contrast module, I pushed Locality to bring out the remainders of the spiral structures. The HDR module did a fine job to reveal the disrupted dust lanes near the centre. Sharp was not used, as signal is too weak and noisy. But … yes … again: SVDecon did an awesome job! It revealed stars in NGC 604, that have not been visible before:

ngc604.gif (18.66 KiB) Viewed 3012 times

I took a closer look at Ivo’s rendition of the IKO dataset and I think, Super Structure and NR was used only in a very conservative way. So I omitted Super Structure and in NR I reduced ‘Brightness Detail Loss’ quite a bit. I’m not sure what is real detail and what noise, and I guess my visual cortex generates detail where probably nothing exists.

Oh and yes I used Guy’s fine STReplay tool quite a lot to work out many tweaked versions. I will not stop to promote it until everybody here uses it!

Comments welcome. Would it still be better to apply stronger noise reduction or even to use the Super Structure module?

Thanks & best regards, Dietmar.

P.S.: @Mike – thanks for lessons in American English and sports. I did my homework. But of course, the ‘Hail Mary’ and ‘far out in left field’ was not too much of a challenge for me And if you ever feel the need to have a ‘Schieberegler’, please contact me. I must still have some, somewhere in boxes full of electronic parts from the 80s and 90s.

[Mike in Rancho]

Nice M33, Dietmar!

The very brightest Ha is already kind of showing, but some extra red oomph could be nice too.

Not that I am one to speak of it, but, I may be seeing a touch of purple tint across your rendition, whereas Ivo's nice M33 has more brown and blue.

I will have to look this up more, but stars in M33 might be a bit of a reach, no? Clusters perhaps? Regardless, that NGC 604 seems really cool - insanely bright and maybe even outdoes the Tarantula. Too bad it probably takes the Hubble or an observatory scope to image it properly.

And I used STReplay just this morning, trying to get myself through the Flaming Star up to the Color module so I can make changes there. Unfortunately I made some kind of mistake...but I'll try again.

[fmeireso]

Looks like nice render, Dietmar. I can't see much wrong with it. Stars are balanced, colors are nice.
The only remark i have that some of the stars are perhaps deep orange, but i guess this is personal taste.

Sofar i never imaged M33. Still not sure if i would like it and i can't really tell why...

[decay]

Thanks for your reply

I may be seeing a touch of purple tint across your rendition, whereas Ivo's nice M33 has more brown and blue.

You're right, Mike. I've placed the two images side by side and now I do see it as well. Thank you!
So this could be a case for the 'Violett begrenzen Schieberegler' (Sorry, I couldn't resist ) - Of course not, a touch of green on top and things instantly look much better.

stars in M33 might be a bit of a reach, no? Clusters perhaps?

M33 seems to consist out of thousands of blue dots as seen in our images. But what is it? Every blue dot a cluster? Really, I don't know
I found this fine Hubble image:
https://www.astronews.com/bilddestages/ ... 0531.shtml

2022-11-29 19_28_16-Bild des Tages - 31. Mai 2012_ NGC 604 – Mozilla Firefox.jpg (88.18 KiB) Viewed 2969 times

Maybe stars are not so far out of reach?

[decay]

Thanks Freddy!

The only remark i have that some of the stars are perhaps deep orange, but i guess this is personal taste.

Yes, I guess the colour saturation of stars seems to be a matter of personal taste. I usually tend to prefer less saturation as well. Mike for example argues, that strong colour saturation is pretty the same as strong histogram stretching in luminance. And this conclusion of course is absolutely true and valid. My (very personal) problem with (too) strong colour saturation of stars is that I have an expectation of how stars should look like. And when I observe the stars using my scope, they don't appear to be saturated so much.

Still not sure if i would like it and i can't really tell why

Yes, M33 seems to be a difficult beauty. It appears to be mixed up and disrupted. There are no strong large scale structures and you have to take your time to look closely at all the small details.

Best regards, Dietmar.

[Startrek]

Hi Dietmar,
A very good Galaxy image from your DSLR with minimal data exposing some excellent detail in the outer arms and core
Nicely processed
SV Decon has worked really well on this image too

Well done !!
Martin

[Stefan B]

Great image, Dietmar. Well processed with a good stretch for revealing the fainter structures while you well tamed and resolved the core structures! And all of that with modest integration time.

Maybe stars are not so far out of reach?

I guess it's possible. It's definitely possible for Andromeda Galaxy. You can for example resolve Hubble's famous variable star (e.g. https://www.astrobin.com/7qp673/ or https://www.astrobin.com/kf8vid/). Since M 33 and Andromeda are both part of the local group and approximately equally distanced the same should be possible for M 33.

Regards
Stefan

[decay]

Hi Martin,

thank you for your kind comments.

SV Decon has worked really well on this image too

Yes, SVDecon works fine with most of my datasets and it worked right from the beginning out of the box for me. It's still amazing for me to see this magic at work.

Best regards, Dietmar.

[decay]

Thank you, Stefan!

And all of that with modest integration time.

This time the weather was the limiting factor. And I'm glad I found this few hours at all. But I still have the problem with my mount and I'm looking forward to buy a stronger one. I'm yet not sure when and which one, but I will contact you regarding this small shop.

And thanks for the link to your nice image of Hubble's variable star. Especially I like the history lesson and the visualisation of this story in your image revision D . Yes, maybe there a lot of stars in M31 and M33 visible in our images. But it’s hard to distinguish which are single stars and which are small clusters I guess ...

Best regards, Dietmar.

[Stefan B]

Hi Dietmar!

This time the weather was the limiting factor. And I'm glad I found this few hours at all.

Sigh, I know what you mean. I got two clear nights in last two months or so and they were during full moon. I tried to get something out of it but it looked really bad and discarded it

But I still have the problem with my mount and I'm looking forward to buy a stronger one. I'm yet not sure when and which one, but I will contact you regarding this small shop.

Of course, anytime!

es, maybe there a lot of stars in M31 and M33 visible in our images. But it’s hard to distinguish which are single stars and which are small clusters I guess ...

Agreed. There are probably tools for telling you one from the other (simbad or aladin?), but have no experience with the like.

Regards
Stefan