Mike B.
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 10/24/05
Posts: 2113
Loc: Louisiana
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Despite the first quarter moon, I did lots of imaging this past weekend. I still have lots of work in processing, but I did get one done so far. It is NGC 253, aka the Silver Coin Galaxy.
These subs came out so good that I processed and stacked them in IRIS then exported a BMP that is essentially untouched except to crop and convert to JPG:
NGC 253 Galaxy. 54x120 sec @ ISO 1600. Meade SN-8 at F/4, MPCC, IDAS-LPS, Hutech Canon 350XT, Atlas EQ-G w/EQMOD.
In IRIS I did my normal pre-processing work flow, an arc-sinh stretch on the resultant stack, then a saturation boost, contrast adjustment, unsharp mask and finally, a white balance adjustment to boost blue. That's it. Later, I tried various enhancements in PS, but I settled on the original exported BMP image since it looked better and more natural than anything else I tried.
Thanks for looking. Hope ya'll like it. 
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Clear skies!
Mike B.
My Astrophotos
My Astrobin Page
My New Blog Page
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David Rosenthal
Imager Extraordinaire
Reged: 06/23/06
Posts: 2726
Loc: NJ
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Mike,
Holy Cow.....that is a beauty !!! I keep going back to look again
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CS, David Rosenthal | Northern NJ
My Image Gallery
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Star surfer8
professor emeritus
Reged: 05/15/06
Posts: 536
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Excellent work.
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Tom
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Galaxy001
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 06/08/06
Posts: 1633
Loc: San Ramon, California
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Mike, this is astonishing. Colors and detail are phenomenal!
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Zach
Remember to Keep Looking Up!
My observatory:
 Meade LX90 GPS 8" UHTC
With a (Meade) 18 mm UWA ep and a 3x telextender
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VLT
member
Reged: 07/02/07
Posts: 61
Loc: Chile
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Very nice indeed !
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WadeVC
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 12/02/05
Posts: 2834
Loc: Lodi, California,
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Holy Cow...that is just simply awesome! Nice job!!
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novbabies
Postmaster
Reged: 06/05/05
Posts: 15678
Loc: Northern Georgia!
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Mike, that's a mind-blowing image  !!!
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Good Seeing!
Mark
Orion 12" XTi f/4.9
VERY old Edmund 6" f/8 reflector
Assorted binoculars
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Manie
sage
Reged: 05/02/07
Posts: 334
Loc: Hazyview South Africa
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Mike, that is what I came to expect from you from "dark Skies", although this one is REALLY GOOD ! Well done !
Manie
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Shadowalker
Apocaloptimist
Reged: 11/23/04
Posts: 10857
Loc: Carriere, Mississippi, USA
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Wow, Mike... I keep blaming my weather (which is the same as yours). I REALLY need to set my gear up again.
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"The truth rarely gets in the way of a good story. ~ R. Woods
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Dave M
Postmaster
Reged: 08/03/04
Posts: 6207
Loc: N.E.Ohio
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Great! shot, Great color and detail..
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Dave
Unitron 131-C
Meade 16" F4.5 EQ Starfinder
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DaveD
professor emeritus
Reged: 03/03/06
Posts: 691
Loc: Santa Cruz, CA
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That is excellent Mike! Great color and details. It definitely doesn't need any more processing.
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Dave
WO ZS 110, Celestron Classic C8,
Orion Skyview Deluxe 8, AT-66
Losmandy GM8
Canon 350D(modded), Minolta 5D, Celestron Neximage
Dave's Astrophoto Page
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Joe G
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 01/10/07
Posts: 762
Loc: Southern California
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Mike,
We have to admire your consistency. Shot after shot looks great.
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Tak FSQ 106N, 12 Orion XT12i, 10" F4.O CF GSO
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Mike B.
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 10/24/05
Posts: 2113
Loc: Louisiana
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Quote:
Wow, Mike... I keep blaming my weather (which is the same as yours). I REALLY need to set my gear up again.
Tom, don't miss out! The last 2 clear spells we had were some of the best nights this year. Hopefully, by the time the moon is out of the sky we'll get another clear spell just like the previous two.
My camera loved the cooler weather, too. I liked the fact that it was comfortable with only a light jacket, so I stayed outside most of the time monitoring the guiding so I could get the best possible results. As a bonus, I saw quite a few Orionids! Lol! 
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Clear skies!
Mike B.
My Astrophotos
My Astrobin Page
My New Blog Page
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