Jannis

I remember this was one of my first and favorite targets in the night sky, and I still come back to it every now and then. The progress over the years have been rather huge, and so of course I had to come back after I modded my Canon 550D to see how it turned out - and the difference was quite huge! Unfortunately the L data only cover the inner part of M51 so the rest of the image is not nearly as sharp, but I'm still very happy with it. L data is 5.5 hours using the Polemaster (QHY5L-II-M/ASI120MM sensor), and RGB data is 10h 50m with the Canon 550D - both on the Explorer 200.

Can't remember seeing this one being captured too often. Nice capture!

Very nice capture of M51 during a full moon! I like your first version better as it have better (in my eyes) colors and contrast, but they're both nice

Very nice!

That's only 10.5 min exposure? Wow, i think i really need a camera upgrade soon... Really nice capture and processing.

That sounds great, glad you sorted it out! Isn't the Optolong L-enHance a dual narrowband filter? I would think it killed most colors in general. The Optolong L-Pro filter seems to let trough much more light, and also a lot more of the yellow light then my CLS filter, so I can't wait to see your results!

It looks like a flat frame issue to me. How do you take your flat frames? I've had issues trying to take flats in daylight before due to light leaks in the telescope/focuser, as well as trough the viewfinder (before i knew i had to block that off). These days i simply take flat frames pointing up in the sky a bit before the sun comes up, or after it goes down and it have worked so far.

There is usually only 2 reasons for DSS to not detect stars. Either the star detection threshold slider is set incorrectly, or the stars are out of focus. If DSS suddenly detects 1000+ stars, the threshold is set too low and it\s only detecting noise. Aim for 30-300 stars, depending on the target. If you upload a frame (full resolution) we will usually be able to instantly tell what\s wrong and what settings are needed (if out of focus is the issue, there is no good solution, but resizing all the frames 50% for example can solve the issue).

That's a really nice picture, and i love all the faint dust clouds that shows up all over. 🙂

Thank you for all the great feedback! Gerr, I don't think i did anything special to get the flame color. Basically just aligned color channels and stretched in Photoshop with curves and levels until color balance looked OK. Your modded 650D should give similar colors. However, that's also one of the reasons i decided to avoid using the CLS filter unless it's really really needed, because it kills so much of the yellow colors. If you're using a light pollution filter, that might be why you're struggling with the colors. This is a single frame with no processing other then a quick aligning the color channels and stretching it strongly to see the colors. It looks quite similar to the end result i think?

I finally modded my 550D last week, so this is also my "new first light" with it. 78x 180s exposures at ISO 800, and i mixed in some Ha from a stack of 16x 600s at ISO 1600. Captured with the Explorer 200. Was struggling a bit with light pollution, but didn't feel it was bad enough to throw in the CLS filter, and i think it turned out quite OK after all.

That's a stunning picture! Did you use RGB or narrowband? How much exposure did you capture to be able to pull out all the faint stuff that well?

Thank you for the feedback. :) I agree it's a bit too dark background, i'll try to aim for ~30 next time. :)

About 7 years since my last attempt at this target with the telescope, so just had to give it another go here the other day. The moon was at around 55%, so probably not ideal, but not enough clear nights to be picky on it i guess. 28x 300s exposures at ISO800 with the Canon 550D and explorer 200.

That's a really really nice picture! May i ask, why only 30 sec subs?

Thanks guys! Dave, if you get enough 30s exposures on the Fuji S100FS it might give some good results i think, at least on brighter targets like M45, M42, M31.

So i gave M45 a go on my EQ1 mount modified with tracking, and an old Canon G9 compact camera from 2007. Camera was limited to 15 sec exposures and auto-dark-frame, but with a modified firmware i could set an interval-meter to run 64 sec exposures with auto-dark-frame disabled. It was quite cloudy, and the tracking wasn't the best, but i managed to get around an hour of data at ISO400 and F4.8 (wide open at full zoom). There is some serious amp-glow on the sensor, and darks unfortunately wasn't able to remove it all, but still i think it turned out quite OK for a 13 year old compact camera and mount that never intended for astro-photography what so ever. 60x 64s exposures at ISO 400, 44,4mm F/4.8 79x dark frames Stacked in DSS and processed in photoshop

Would my Surface Pro 3 be considered a PC or a tablet...?

Stronger light pollution filters like cls are still ok though, right?

Looking really nice so far! As far as your 280mm pier, i would make it thinner at the top. I learned it the hard way after just testing the HEQ5 mount and Explorer 200 scope on my 250mm pier yesterday. I thought 250mm would work fine all the way up, but i regret that now. It still works, but i can't leave it unattended.

I just learned this the hard way with my setup. I can't do much about it now though, i just hope it will be fine for the most part, and i'll have to keep an eye on the scope when slewing or tracking for a long time. I like your work so far!

I have the same problem with my scope using a finderguider. Graph is relatively nice, but over the hours it drifts way off from where it started. Could be flexure, but i dont know. Hope someone Else know. If its indeed flex we are struggeling with, i think at least i will concider going for oag instead - i just dont know what i neef to buy...