NGC 253 Sculptor Galaxy in Sculptor

Date:11/2/2007

Location:Tierra Del Sol, California

Conditions: 40% moon, seeing 6/10, transparency 6/10, temperature 55-65F, very dry night, wind 5-15mph.

Telescope: Celestron C8, .63 focal reducer, prime focus, no diagonal.

Mount: Losmandy G11, Gemini goto, polar scope used to align.

Camera: Canon EOS 40D

Focusing: focused on star using live Focus mode.

Exposures: (8) 5 min RAW, 1600 ISO

Processing: IP2.82 converted to FITS, align-rotate, combine median, PS CS , rotated, cropped, white balance, black point, sky neutralized, curves, hue-saturation, adjustment show/highlight,SMI routine, selective Neat image noise reduction, reduced size for web.

Comments: Tracking is very good on this shot.Shooting at ISO 1600 gets more detail but also more noise.Not sure if added data off sets the noise, perhaps.The galaxy was very low in the sky.