M51

[Darth Takahashi]

This is couple of night work, the weather has been great and the atmosphere very stable etc... I have been perhaps a little heavy handed with the processing and some of my stretches so I'll probably come back to it later this even.

My image processing techniques are very much in flux at the moment as I do more and more with PI and less with PS. Colour balancing was easier in PI and now I'm playing with the curves for Saturation and Hue in PI etc... Anyone know of a good tutorial?

Weather still great today and the wife wants a cup of tea whilst gardening!!!.

All data was captured with my refractors, still not manage to press the Newt into operation, to be fair the last issue was with my filter wheel, maybe tonight.

And here is another one processed completely in PI using there colour balancing / saturation techniques applied by my hands of course!!!

[Darth Takahashi]

And again, this time only the Lum which as you can see I have been working hard on to improve the overall image detail

Tonight will be an H Alpha run, all night...

[barkis]

Excellent job on this Neil.

Spirals well defined, and the galaxy looks very opulent.

Very nice indeed.

Ron.

[Darth Takahashi]

Excellent job on this Neil.

Spirals well defined, and the galaxy looks very opulent.

Very nice indeed.

Ron.

Thanks Ron, I'm outside now doing the H Alpha run but there's not much in by the way of signal in H Alpha!!!

There is some signal there but not a lot, my problem with imaging with these long integrations is that my DARKS are only 600sec / 800sec in length!

[dc509]

Wow - some excellent detail in there

d

[Darth Takahashi]

Well I'm going to leave the image as it is for now;

We have had a great spell of weather with 3 clear night and sunny days... Although my hay-feaver is trying to kill me though!!!

I managed to capture about 2.5 hours of H Alpha but it really only ascents the image rather than adding any more detail so for the rest of the night I when on to RGB only. I was already happy with the luminance and the detail that I was getting etc...

In the background I have been testing out CCDstack which unfortunately I do not get along with. Being honest it looks a little bit like an unfinished program or a work in progress and for 200$ you want a lot more than that. Anyway that's just my opinion.

Lum = 3.5 Hours @ F7.7 with the TOA

RGB = 3.5 Hours each @ F7.7 with the TOA

Ha = 2.5 Hours @ F7.7 with the TOA

MaxIm for data capture and calibration / stacking

CCDstack also for the above but now no longer used

PixInsight for the majority of the processing

PhotoShop for the final touches etc...

Anyway I hope you like the final image

[Darth Takahashi]

This is it, M51 reprocess with my new mathematics colour balancing image processing routine. I might still work a little more on the H-Alpha routine to refine it further but I will not be reprocessing this image again.

I'm now very happy with the results which can only now be improved with further data and a slightly more refined H-Alpha function.

I hope you like it, I do and this is the final piece of the puzzle for me falling into place.

[Hedgerow]

Neil,

Having just posted my first attempt at any DSO ie M51, I have now looked at yours and it is a completely different league to mine! I love the fine detail and the superb colours. I certain have something to aspire to. I am very impressed. Well done.

Regards

Peter

[Darth Takahashi]

Neil,

Having just posted my first attempt at any DSO ie M51, I have now looked at yours and it is a completely different league to mine! I love the fine detail and the superb colours. I certain have something to aspire to. I am very impressed. Well done.

Regards

Peter

Don't worry, I still feel the same as you when looking at some of the excellent images posted here at SGL6. Personally, I don't think my images are especially good and I'm still struggling to improve them every time I image.

A big piece of the puzzle fell into place for me this week as this one image amply demonstrates with its evolution.

Colour balance is a subjective matter, especially when you consider how much we have to stretch and manipulate our images, now I have managed to make it consistent and repeatable time and time again... Personally, I still think the H-Alpha part could have been added more subtlety, its a little too prominent in this image at the moment... Something to work on during a rainy day.

[Starjumper]

Nicely done Neil, I like the colour .

John