The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
Our nearest major galaxy neighbor, a mere 2.5 million light years away. It is gravitationally coupled to our galaxy and in 5 billion years they will be colliding and merging. Could alter some cosmic real estate. I shot this a couple of weeks ago and started processing it several days ago and after going back and forth and back again I decided to be happy with this one. For now. Until I learn more techniques.
Specific Feedback
All comments welcome!
Technical Details
Same as the Pleiades:
Askar FRA400 astrograph (refracting telescope), ASI2600 cooled color camera, SkyWatcher EQM 35 tracker, ASIAIR controller. Four hours of 30-second subframes (longer blows out stars and bright nebulosity with the fast scope), dark, flat and bias calibration frames, processed in PixInsight. Churning through calibrating and registering the subframes took 5.5 hours on a fast computer that was otherwise unoccupied. I didn’t count the electrons used. Pixinsight was used to do processing stuff that is mind-boggling, but made easy by recent advancements. And a final tweak with PS on this one.
Hi Diane,
This is another stunning result of your hard work. The effort you put in, both in the shoot and in the post-processing was definitely worth it. There are so many nice details in the galaxy but no noise.
And it’s amazing that the light waves that hit your sensor have been traveling for over 2.5 million years.
Thanks, @Jens_Ober! Yes, that’s mind-boggling! How do we even know it’s still there??
The new Webb Space Telescope is photographing objects so dim (far away) that we are seeing things near the birth of the universe. (THIS universe, anyway…)
OMG yes - by the time we can see things, they may have boiled away into infinity. The 3D effect with this one is pretty grand. It reminds me of the tests you get during an eye exam. So incredible that things like this our out there and that someone there might be looking at the Milky Way or taking images of it somehow and wondering about the theoretical us and whether we are still here.
Thanks, @Janis_Connell – all the credit for a result with this much detail goes to the hardware and software. But it is astounding to me that it can be achieved with not a lot more expense and effort than what goes into high-end nature photography.
