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Showing results for tags 'm51'.
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First attempt at any DSO other than the brighter stuff like M42 or Andromeda. Learning to use the AZ-Gti /Sharpcap polar align / windows synscan app / APT platesolving ... And guiding ! all in one night all went well so had a quick 30 mins on M51 (first time I'd ever managed to actually frame it ... Plate solving is amazing) 90 second subs gain 420 and 5 darks and synthetic flat for dust bunnies / gradients Wish I'd have gone longer now as tried a 5 minute sub once guiding was working which looked good . Very noisy but only 30 mins .
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From the album: Deep Sky III
I decided to try to maximize detail by collecting a large quantity of Luminescence data and then applying strong deconvolution to the areas of high signal to noise. I also decided to try out Mure denoise, a Pixinsight routine that reduces camera noise. The final result is an LRGB and represents just over 17 hours integration time. I hadn't noticed before the rather strangely shaped fuzzies in the backgroud - have a look at the annotated version for IC4278 and the triangular shaped galaxy PC2292105. -
Yet another attempt at the Whirlpool galaxy (M51). This time, I decided to try to maximize detail by collecting a large quantity of Luminescence data and then applying strong deconvolution to the areas of high signal to noise. I also decided to try out Mure denoise, a Pixinsight routine that reduces camera noise. The final result of this LRGB processing approach is shown below and represents just over 17 hours integration time. I hadn't noticed before the rather strangely shaped fuzzies in the backgroud - have a look at the annotated version for IC4278 and the triangular shaped galaxy PC2292105. Alan LIGHTS: L:46, R:20, G:23, B: 15 x 600s; DARKS:30, BIAS:100, FLATS:40 all at -20C.
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Hi All, once again it's been a great pleasure to share this passion with SGL friends so I'd like to say a small thanks to everyone by posting a link to some data we shot here this year. It's all yours to have a play with - just try not to show me up! It's from the TEC140 Triplet Apo/Mesu 200/Atik 460 mono rig working at about 0.9 arcseconds per pixel, cropped to reduce file sizes and aligned to fit together in Registar. You'll find LRGB and Ha in the link, though the Ha is a bit of a token gesture at 2X40 minutes. However, I found I could use it to give a hint of the star forming regions. There are no short subs for the central core but I found I could use the RGB layer as a substitute since the core was quite subdued in that set. I hope this Dropbox link will work for you. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/pxrxxtkr6khwvsf/AADNDoXJZh4t7zjI3LdIirjea?dl=0 Have a great Christmas wherever you are and let's look forward to all those incoming photons in 2019... Olly
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This is something of a work in progress as more data is yet to be be added in order to get as much detail as possible. So far this image is made from 52 x 30 second exposures at 6400 ISO (from 107 originally put in Deep Sky Stacker) plus 10 dark frames, eight flat frames and 20 bias/offset frames. Post processing done in Photoshop CS6.
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Like so many other people on here, I was taking advantage of the clear night on Saturday to get some imaging done. M51 was nice and high in the sky, so I thought I would have a go as I had never tried this particular galaxy before. After a while the guiding was fairly stable (not brilliant, but stable), and there was space on the histogram, so I changed from 5 min subs to 10 min subs in the hope of getting some more faint detail out. The focus was spot on according to the Bahtinov mask, so I am assuming my big soft stars are either seeing, or guiding wobbles. The RMS error for guiding was 0.88" pretty much constantly for the whole session. With the Camera / scope combination I am imaging at 1.74"/pixel, so that means that 3 std dev of guiding error (which is 99% of the distribution) is +- 2.64" which should cover a 3 pixel area (2.64"x2 / 1.74 = 3.03). However the image seems a lot softer than that. M51 by frugal10191, on Flickr Lights: 22 x 300s @ ISO800; 16 @ 600s ISO800 Darks: 112 x 300s Bias: 492 Flats: 23 x 1/8s Integration: Bayer Drizzle (Scale 2, Drop Shrink 1.0) Mount: Skywatcher AZ-EQ6 GT Imaging Telescope: Skywatcher ED80 DS-Pro with 0.85x FF/FR Imaging Camera: Canon 60D (Unmodified) Guiding Telescope: Skywatcher ST-80 Guiding Camera: Starlight Xpress Lodestar X2 Software: Sequence Generator Pro, PHD2, PixInsight
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Depending on your point of view this was either a late night or an early morning stargazing trip. After a few hours of sleep my alarm woke me at 12:30am and I headed to the listed Bortle 1 skies just south of Tonopah, Nv, USA (map). When I went to bed the conditions were iffy due to a weather system that was pushing through - but when I woke up the satellite showed clear-enough conditions to warrant getting dressed and giving it a go. I arrived at my desired location and proceeded to setup the scope. The challenge of the night was going to be the temperature which was hovering around 9F (-12C)...I was dressed in sweater, jacket, ski jacket, jeans, ski pants, ear muffs, a hat that covered head and neck, ski gloves, and two hand warmers. Brrrr. Old Friends. New Observations. Missed Objects. The Milky Way was visible...but not impressive as I've seen from many other dark locations - a clear sign that transparency wasn't at its best...some of that upper level moisture must be hanging around. M31 was below the horizon but I'm sure it would have still been naked eye. The Beehive Cluster (M44) and suprisingly M67 (averted) were both visible naked eye. I didn't really go into the night with any set plan on what to observe...I wanted to ID SN2012ht, try to observe the Horsehead Nebula, maybe check on a few old friends under DARK SKIES, and not freeze to death...pretty simple. After spending some time in/around Orion I realized that my eyepiece was going to be a limiting factor as it was frosting over about every 30 minutes...requiring a defrosting back in the car. Anyway - M42/M43 looked brilliant as usual. The Flame Nebula was just about as visible as I've ever seen it. But tried as I might...the Horsehead eluded me. The jump from Alnitak to the Flame Nebula to HD37903 which is obvious with the surrounding nebulosity. And then to HD37805 which had much less nebulosity in the area. Knowing the Horsehead is w/in the FOV at 110x I started searching but the faint nebulosity that defines the area of the Horsehead wasn't visible. I'd come back numerous times tonight. Moving over to Sn2012ht the jump inside Leo was easier than expected. I found the right star field in my 110x EP FOV and quickly identified Sn2012ht shining around mag 12.x (it's listed at 12.8 and I'd buy that). Two nearby stars at mag 9.9 and 13.1 were both easily visible and the SN was a pinprick of light (like a very compact star...which sounds funny to say) a touch brighter than the 13.1 nearby star. Victory - SN #8 logged! The host galaxy was NOT visible...and with it listed at mag 15.x that's no suprise...but 'companion?' galaxy NGC 3447a (mag 13.1) was just visible. I went back to the Horsehead...was able to get faint nebulosity on and off...but never positively IDed the Horsehead Nebula. Over the next 90 minutes I spent time with some old friends: M81 - the core was strong and both spiral arms were faintly visible...the lower arm in my EP stood out a littel better than the other. M82 - shinging as a bright cigar...the dust lane just visible across the center and an unevenness along the central area...hints at more structure present. M51/NGC5159 - both galaxies showed up well and the spiral arms of M51 were visible...not the best views i've had of the arms...but they were present. The arms did not reach all the way to NGC5159. M101 - one of my best views of this large galaxy - spiral structure was faintly visible and the core stood out better than I'd ever seen it. At this point my feet ached from the cold seeping through my shoes, my EP was icing up too often, and my laptop was difficult to use with thick gloves...so I packed up and headed to the warmth of my car and hotel. I'd love to come back here when conditions allow for more comfortable viewing. It's dark! Overall - several old friends visited, one new galaxy, and one new supernova...worth some frostnip I guess. Happy hunting!
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Here is a image that i did the other night of M51 using an GSO RC8 scope with a Trius 694 camera. 5 min subs of each channel LRGB with 12 subs in each channel. This is the first time I have been playing with Pixinsight and loving the software but my results are still not brilliant, i think i need more data for this one and when the devils lightbulb is not in the sky Any feedback and tips or help would be much appreciated Ian Updated with Ollys suggestion of SCNR
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With another clear sky last night I set up the scope again and tracked on M13 for a while as the sky gradually darkened. It got better and better as dusk turned steadily to reasonable darkness. I then star-hopped to M51, it was about 23:00 by then, and the cores of M51a and M51b were clearly visible. My wife had joined me by this stage and we did a bit of navigating around the milky way using just our eyes, which we can see from our back garden as the light pollution isn't so bad where we are, and we returned to the telescope to see the view improve as the sky got slowly darker. I could just about make out the faint disk like glow around M51a and with some imagination the glow extended around M51b. I also very fleetingly saw hints of darker banding in the glow - though this may be my imagination. I was using my 15 mm EP to make the image reasonably bright. The sky still had a faint glow, even by midnight, and (apart from waiting until later in the year when the sky would be darker) would a nebula filter help with a galaxy? As I mentioned the light pollution isn't so bad and what glow there is in the sky is a very pale grey. The milky way can still be made out fairly well overhead though it merges into the grey towards the horizon.
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Evening folks, This is my first attempt at M51 and probably my best at post processing, having some trouble getting rid of the blueish hue from the Astronomik cls clip filter but got rid most of it. this was taken with the following: SW 200p and eq5 pro Finder Guider QHY5v Canon 550D unmodded 15 x 300s lums 9 x 300s darks 9 x 300s Flats Any advice in processing would be greatly appreciated Thanks http://www.flickr.co...tream/lightbox/
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With poor UK weather and given that I need post processing practice, I thought I'd have a go at a reprocess of M51 that I acquired in Feb/March 16. This time I attempted to get better star colours and to sharpen the galaxy a little more via a combination of Pixinsight and Photoshop functions. The image is an LRGB and represents just over 6 hours integration time. Alan
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I've often heard the view that long subs are required to image faint objects. However, my understanding of the theory is that if sky brightness is sufficient to overcome read noise -- a situation that faces many of us much of the time -- there is no advantage in using long subs. Short subs (when combined with live stacking) are of interest in near real-time viewing and simplify the acquisition setup (no need to guide, use of alt-az mode or perhaps cheaper mounts), so I'm intrigued to know how much detail can be picked up by stacking lots of short subs. Motivated by this thread I chose M51 as a test object since it contains some extremely faint extensions -- the outer halo -- which are not generally picked up on short (total) exposures.Sky conditions: SQM 20.2Equipment: SW Quattro 8" f/4, AZ-EQ6 mount in alt-az mode, Lodestar mono X2 camera, no filters.Novice post-processing in Nebulosity 3: dark frame (20x15s) subtraction, mean stacking, digital development.Here's a stack of just over 1 hour (250 x 15s)Some details of the outer halo are coming through, I think, although by comparison with much longer total exposures there are still huge swathes not captured. By continuing to stack 15s subs I wonder how much more of the halo would show up or whether the process will hit a wall? Do I have the patience to find out? cheersMartin -
This is my first ever M51. 50s subs 20Lx15Dx10B (still not flats). Taken with a Nikon D7200 at ISO 1600 on a SWED80+0.8FR. Processed with PI and a little PS. I quite pleased with the results and wanted to share although I know it can be better :-) Thanks for watching!
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From the album: Astro Collection
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From the album: Marci’s Astropix
2hrs with EOS650D at 18Mp shooting visual colour range (240s subs @ ISO800), 1.5hrs with EOS1000D Full-spectrum-modified (no narrowband filters) at 10Mp (120s subs @ ISO800 as core blows out VERY easily in full spectrum). 5x dark frames and 20x bias frames for the EOS1000D session. No flats. Stacked in DSS 64bit with 2x drizzle, processed in Photoshop CC 2018 (very little needed doing to it to be honest, just pull the saturation up a bit to bring the colour out). This is a heavy crop hence the apparent low resolution of the final image. This was the last outing for the EOS650D before I killed it, hence no darks / bias applied to the subs from that camera - it died in process of taking it off mount to shoot darks etc whilst I packed everything else away.© M Coyles
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M51 The Whirlpool Galaxy 21.04.2018
Vicky050373 posted a gallery image in DSO, Nebula, Galaxies, Comets etc
From the album: DSO, Nebula, Galaxies, Comets etc
M51 The Whirlpool Galaxy 21.04.18 My first proper attempt at RGB imaging with the monochrome CCD Imaged using William Optics FLT-110 and Atik 314L monochrome camera. 10 x 300 seconds R, 10 x 300 seconds G, 2 x 300 seconds B (as I had to delete the other 8 due to technical issues). 10 x 300 seconds Luminence. I will have another look at this data once I have done more reading up on combining my Luminence data with the RGB data as it was a case of having a play around this morning. However, I'm very happy with my result for now.© vicky050373
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From the album: DSO images
M51 Whirlpool Galaxy Skywatcher ED80 + 0.85FF/FR on EQ6 guided Atik 16IC-S 1hr20mins L, 12mins each RGB© MGough 2015.08.27
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Here's a crop of M51 from last night.. Making the most of some surprising clearish patches, so after my main target dropped behind the tree's I thought I'd point at the least cloudy patch of sky & leave things running through the night.. Not the ideal imaging setup for this target but with the weather I'm desperate for anything to post these days! So out of 133 subs I've ended up using: 49x5mins from the 1000D on the 80ED 30x5mins luminance from the 314L+ on the ZS66 I have some binned R & B from the 314L+ (was going to use a synth G) but I don't think they'll add anything at this scale.. Plus it's still early days of getting my head around CCD processing for me anyway. Processed with Nebulosity, Registar & CS3
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In my quest to make a good go at using an OSC I managed to grab 3 hours of images of M51 last night with an 80%+ Moon to contend with. After more like 6 hours of playing in PixInsight I managed to produce this. Trouble is I'm never quite sure when I'm finished. Is image processing ever finished? Or is it an ongoing past-time for cloudy nights? Any comments on the image and what additional tweaking might improve it would be really appreciated. Adrian Scope : ED80DS Pro + NEQ6 Pro + 0.85 F/R Camera: Atik 414ex osc Software : SGP + PHD + PI _2017_03_15_M51_dss_ABE-lin+nonlin.tif
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My effort at M51 on a damp night in Lancashire. 25 x 2 mins at 1600 ISO plus dark's and flat lights. Stacked in DSS and processed in photo shop CS 2. A couple of the same image processed differently. could do with three or four clear nights to get more data, but not likely up here. hope you like, all comments genuinely welcomed. equipment used: canon 1000D - SW 200P . Tim
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A rare clear evening so had to have another go with my Fujifilm XT-1, swapped thing around, accompanied by the usual "why doesn't this work now?" so only had time for one target. M51 was well placed, so this is the result of 17x5mins iso 1600 Meade 127 scope with reducer (should have taken that off) no calibration frames I'm quite pleased with he image for a quick session. It does mean I can get a colour image in a short time even though the ccd would be better.
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This is my first image with a Canon 500D, modified for astro. Seems to be a big improvement on my unmodded NikonD5300. I guess its not the best subject for increased sensitivity though. I think some of the tidal structures are showing? And this shows what else is present....
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While waiting for the sky to clear here in Sweden and galaxy season to start I have been fiddling around with data from last season. The first one is M51 data from Ole Alexander Ødegård (aka Xplode) that I added to some wider star field data that I had. I like the feeling of space around the galaxy while there is some rather nice detail that allows a zoom in. Altogether 4 h of data, most of it from Ole's TS 12" Imaging Newtonean (f/4) with a modded Canon 6D. The other is my own Leo Triplet data, and only about 1 hour of it but I think it turned out rather ok (5" ES Apo with a Canon 60Da). Comments are always welcome of course Cheers
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Another night of clear and clouds -- ideal for short live captures! These two are 60s exposures on the usual kit under a half-moon. First, ngc4631 and its satellite dwarf galaxy ngc4627, known as the whale and pup. Then, being chased by the clouds the only window happened to be Canes Venatici so I took a first look at M51 with the Lodestar: Even in a big dob I haven't seen it like that. I dug out some notes from 2011 when M51 hosted a supernova just to check that the bright star at about 5 o'clock wasn't another one . I hate to think what the new monochrome Lodestar would do with this object under moonless skies at a fast f-ratio... Does anyone know what the almost vertical faint smear near bottom right is? Looks like a faint edge-on galaxy. I pushed up to 90s to get this noticeably less-noise image It's beginning to show some oval stars due to running in alt-az mode but nothing to distract from M51 (this isn't AP after all). Am I the only one getting decent-ish weather at the moment? Martin
