M33 Triangulum Galaxy 2018

[Hankmeister3]

I'm thinking about having my Canon 77D modified. I'm not quite sure whose services I should use. I'm quite the mechanical handyman - jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none - but I don't trust myself around electronics or something that has to be done in a dust-free environment. I'm certainly open to any suggestions about what company or qualified person to use for this bit of surgery.

[Mac]

I am thinking to just save the money on modifying mine and get the ZWO ASI533C

If I modded my camera, then I would have nothing for my normal photo shooting and if I did, it's about the 1/4 the price of a new shiny astrocam.

The buy now button is highlighted...

[Juno16]

I'm thinking about having my Canon 77D modified. I'm not quite sure whose services I should use. I'm quite the mechanical handyman - jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none - but I don't trust myself around electronics or something that has to be done in a dust-free environment. I'm certainly open to any suggestions about what company or qualified person to use for this bit of surgery.

Hi Henry,

I used LifePixel for the Ha mod. $275 plus the cost to ship it to them. I am very happy with their work and quick turnaround time. I am pretty handy too, but the dust free environment was the main reason I didn’t want to open it up.

You can set a custom white balance with a neutral gray sheet or white paper and the camera functions fine for daylight photography.

Jm

[Hankmeister3]

Thanks Tom and Steve. Yeah, I hope to get my Canon 77D modified before April. Where have members generally been sending their cameras to get the factory filter removed? And what, if any, substitute filter should be put in it's place? I hear most astrophotographers opt for a clear "filter" or even a UV/IR cut filter.

[Mac]

You can set a custom white balance with a neutral gray sheet or white paper and the camera functions fine for daylight photography.

Jm

I didn't know that and of course have no first hand experience.

thanks for the info

[Hankmeister3]

Hey, thanks. I've heard that, too, about white balance. On the Canons (probably like most mid-range DSLRs) there's a "custom balance" mode one can avail themselves of using either the Kodak gray scale or, like you say, a white sheet. Unlike Mac I have several cameras so I'm not too concerned about permanently modifying one of mine.

Does LifePixel just replace the factory filter with a clear one or are their other options? I'm going to their website shortly to check it out.

[Juno16]

Hey, thanks. I've heard that, too, about white balance. On the Canons (probably like most mid-range DSLRs) there's a "custom balance" mode one can avail themselves of using either the Kodak gray scale or, like you say, a white sheet. Unlike Mac I have several cameras so I'm not too concerned about permanently modifying one of mine.

Does LifePixel just replace the factory filter with a clear one or are their other options? I'm going to their website shortly to check it out.

Hey Henry,

When you look at the LifePixel web site, you will see that they have several options. Basically, for astro, members here recommended the Ha mod to me. For that, they replace the IR filter on the sensor with their filter that allows much more reds including deeper reds. No issues with daytime photography or lens autofocus.

This was what I wanted (and got).

They also have a full spectrum mod where they remove all filters from the sensor (the only reason that I say all is because I believe that Canon uses several) and replace it with clear glass. With this mod, all wavelengths are allowed to reach the sensor. This could be quite cool if you were looking to do some really interesting daylight infrared photography. The effects are really cool.
With a full spectrum mod, you must use a UV/IR cut filter when you astro image to prevent very high and very low wavelengths from reaching the sensor. Since these wavelengths have a slightly different focus point, so bright stars and nebulas will have a bloated appearance. There are possible focus issues with daylight photography with certain lenses (autofocus will have to be calibrated).

Even with the Ha mod, I have had some issues with bright star bloating and slightly bloated bright nebulas in other galaxies (like M33). They can be somewhat mitigated in post processing to near pleasing levels, but I went ahead and bought an LP filter that also cuts the UV/IR to hopefully help some. Have yet to try it.

Good luck if you go the mod route. I had a great experience with LifePixel. The customer service is excellent.

Jim

[Hankmeister3]

Thanks, Jim. I went on LifePixel's website yesterday and immediately got confused with all the options. However, it's pretty clear they know what they're doing. Your explanation cleared up a lot of questions I had after my first walk through so now I have a roadmap. Unfortunately, the last thing I need is "star bloat" but it appears from what you're saying there are ways around that. Actually, I have several IR/UV cut filters including a 2-inch Baader so from what you're saying if I got a clear glass replacement in the camera I'd be set plus I'd get some really neat daylight infrared photos which always interested me, especially during my earlier B&W days a long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far … . Okay, actually it was this Milky Way galaxy but you get my point.

However, the H-Alpha mod also appears very interesting. Can an IR/UV filter be used with that to cut down on "star bloat'", too?

[Don Quixote]

Just came across this thread Henry.
This is looking good.
You are really getting the hang of layering.
Nice work buddy.

[Hankmeister3]

Thanks, Mark. Yeah, I've been getting some practice in given how little I've been out under the stars the last two months.

Speaking of layering, here's another one of my "experiments" where I took the image of M33 I orginally posted and then ran it back through my Arcsoft PhotoStudio in hopes of cleaning up the cyan tint and backgound. I may have lost a bit in the extended arms of M33, but I think this version looks even better … to my eyes anyway.

Adding up all the layering I did in both round one and round two, I counted 10 layers! I found there is also a "feathering" option which smooths the layering to a small degree when merging into the final image. Very marginal improvement IMO, but every bit helps with single-frame!

I may tweak this a bit more and post this image on its own thread. I hope to find another feature in my PhotoStudio 6.0 that would aid the cause but I feel I'm nearing the end of the capabilities of this 8-year old post-production software.

[STEVE333]

Amazing result for a single frame Hank. I enjoy following your work.

Steve

[Hankmeister3]

Thanks, Steve. I always appreciate your compliments particularly given the level of images you produce.

I have little doubt that within a year or two I'll find myself stacking everything - and that's actually okay with me. Until then, I'm still greatly entertained and sometimes blown away myself by what can be done with just a single-frame capture on a given night. Right now I just want to see how far I can go (given the skies available to me here in central Illinois) with four to six minute exposures at ISO800. And I believe I'm well on my way to that goal despite knowing single-frame will always limit my access to the sheer number of photons it takes to create those wonderful images you guys do! Of course the wall I'll always be bumping against is the signal-to-noise ratio negatively compounded by the much-less-than-perfect skies we all have to endure.

I still believe the relative simplicity of single-frame imaging may keep a few budding APers interested in grabbing some celestial images from time to time particularly if they otherwise see stacking and all the post-production tweaking that goes with it as just "too much" given their own nominal interest in the hobby. For me, seeing that the simplicity of single-frame AP can be a fun and viable instead of having to commit to more exotic post-production "solutions", keeps me enjoying the hobby of astronomy all the more!

Sometimes I hesitate to keep pounding on single-frame, but it's what I like to do. I guess it still has a comfortable place in the realm of amateur AP though the vast majority of APers today do gravitate (no pun intended) toward the high-end of post-production imaging. In any case I'm still benefitting greatly from the imaging advancements made possible by consumer DSLR cameras and the post-production tools available to all of us to produce images which would have startled even professional astronomers twenty years ago. It's kinda cool how much the AP state-of-the-art has advanced here in the 21st Century.

[kt4hx]

Nicely done Hank and I agree with Steve. You may not feel it is a good image, but I can tell you that you captured far more there than you realize. Below is an annotated copy of your cleaned up image with what you captured. There are still some more very dim bits of fuzz in there, but frankly I got tired of going over it in such detail and figured what I found was more than sufficient to get the point across!

Anyway, here is your image with various pieces of M33's structure identified for you. After the image is a list of the objects I indicated and what they are. Again, well done and hope you enjoy this!

NGC/IC Objects

NGC 588: an HII region
NGC 592: an HII region
NGC 595: the second brightest HII region in M33
NGC 603: this is nothing more than a star triplet that was misidentified as possibly being nebulous and found its way into the NGC
NGC 604: easily the brightest and largest HII knot in M33
IC 131: an HII region
IC 132: an HII region
IC 133: an HII region
IC 135: an HII region
IC 136: an HII region, though I found a reference to it being an open cluster, which as far as I can tell is incorrect
IC 137: an HII region, though I’ve also seen this one erroneously listed as an open cluster
IC 139: an HII region
IC 140: an HII region
IC 142: an HII region
IC 143: an HII region

Globular Cluster

C39: the brightest globular cluster in M33

The objects with an “A” prefix are from a 1980 paper entitled "On the Stellar Content and Structure of the Spiral Galaxy M33", by Roberta Humphreys and Alan Sandage. They identified 143 associations within the galaxy. I am positive there are many others in your image, but I frankly got tired of going over it with a fine tooth comb! So I stopped at 10, per the list below.

A66, A71, A85, A110, A112, A115, A116, A127, A128 and A131

[Hankmeister3]

Wow, Alan … WOW! I had no clue. Actually, the more I tweaked the image the more I thought I was destroying data at some level. All this digital manipulation stuff is still a bit of a mystery to me. I've just been flying by the seat of my pants when tweaking, layering, re-tweaking my images. YOU'VE TURNED IT INTO A SCIENCE!

I'm humbled. Thanks again, Alan for your extra effort! TSS is certainly the place to be!

[kt4hx]

Wow, Alan … WOW! I had no clue. Actually, the more I tweaked the image the more I thought I was destroying data at some level. All this digital manipulation stuff is still a bit of a mystery to me. I've just been flying by the seat of my pants when tweaking, layering, re-tweaking my images. YOU'VE TURNED IT INTO A SCIENCE!

I'm humbled. Thanks again, Alan for your extra effort! TSS is certainly the place to be!

My pleasure Hank. I do not do imaging so I am of no use in terms of giving advice on the processes involved. However, I am a long time visual observer, and in particular a galaxy hunter. So I am used to looking for dim small details. I will sometimes pick out an image and look it over in detail as a form of exercise for my mind's eye in an effort to keep my observational skills honed. I find it fun and something good to do when I don't have a chance to observe. I happened to see your image and noticed several features in the arms of M33 and that piqued my interest. Glad you enjoyed me giving your image a going over.

[Hankmeister3]

Any time, Alan. That's an amazing astro discipline you've cultivated. That's pretty cool there was a whole book (or books?) dedicated to identifying DSOs in M33. I imagine there's an even more elaborate book for M31.

[Kanadalainen]

Love it that you process single images. Congratulations on an outstanding shot.

[Hankmeister3]

Thanks, Ian. When I picked AP back up in April 2018, I thought most APers were doing single-frame with the occasional stacked image, that's how long I had been out of the AP loop. But I had become so enamored of single-frame capture, I've stuck with it this long with a couple of exceptions and my ongoing Stacker-Lite experiment. Probably next year the lure of full-on stacking and post-production will be too much for me to resist. Until then, I'm still having fun!