Wow!

[rofus]

After getting the help of a lot of people here to understand why my new autoguiding was not working, I got finally all working brilliantly as planned...I can barely contain the joy, and today I finally got the time to also dig again into Pixinsight...

As a photographer and fan of Photoshop, I have to admit that Pixinsight will be my one and only astrophotography software from now on. It's not a photo editing software, is a math software made easy with a nice interface, but it's so quick and perfect workflow that makes all the rest second. Don't know how I did till now...well worth the money when trial will expire!

With my relatively cheap and simple configuration (compared to all senior members here!) I'm so pleased with this m51...just 10 subs of 300sec each, but I can't help comparing it with what I was able to do it before with a smaller scope (ST102 vs ST150), no guide and no Pixinsight...    

[szymon]

Very nice indeed!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Mr Spock]

Very nice, you've done a great job there.

[rofus]

Thanks guys...sadly was far from ideal seeing, not enough data and still on my way to learn to get the best from Pixinsight...and a small object for my 750mm focal length (that's a 1:1 crop), so I miss some of the really outer very faint arms...but seeing so many details and colours makes me really excited at what I'll be able to achieve now.

This is the biggest upgrade I ever got in many years of AP.. it's such an addictive thing (as I'm sure we all know) when you know your limit now is again not anymore the equipment but your own skills

[swag72]

It's great when you take a big step and you can see the difference - Well done

[jabeoo1]

Thats lovely mate.  The Whirlpool galaxy deserves some special award for being so brilliant.....maybe some kind of national heritage sign or something

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Really nice result!

[bobmoss]

Nice!

[rofus]

Thanks!

I have to replace now all the images on my gallery Jokes apart yes I agree things like m51 should get an award and be protected species...switch off street lights!

Now I'll start investigating how to calculate the optimal exposure time/iso combination with my sky (slightl light polluted village south of Norwich). For now I try to keep the histogram slightly under half (to avoid burning too much stars highlights and still get enough details in the darkest regions).