M51 in a force 7

[MartinB]

One from Sat 10th March. Desperate to have a first go with my ED120 despite the breeze. Went for M51. The wind got stronger and stronger with every sub frame having some fairly abstract shaped stars. Focussing was very tricky to judge. Anyway, I started so I finished! By the end the wind was howling :shock: The sky however was great and the wind certainly helped the seeing.

This was LRGB Lum 40 x 3min unbinned RGB each 30 x 1min binned. Guided with a ZS66 on a GPDX mount. SXVH9 and SXV guidehead. Captured with Maxim. Colour layers scaled in Maxim RGB 1.3 : 1 : 1.4. Processed in PS using FITS liberator plug in. Some help from Noel's Tools.

Had to work pretty hard on the processing, don't look too closely at the stars! The wind has shaken some of the sharpness and resolution out of the image but I'm very pleased considering everything.

[geppetto]

Top marks Martin, you earned that one.

A real beauty, well done 8)

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

Looks the dogs MB. Great capture even with the wind. Can't wait for the proper version.

Captain Chaos

[geppetto]

Can't wait for the proper version

Tomorrow night Martin, clear as a bell honest

[SteelRat]

Stunning 8)

[lunator]

Martin

Excellent pic , looking forward to seeing the pic you get when youare not holding the scope down

[dazza1639]

Stunning :shock: Really great image well done. The images when the wind dies down are going to be unbelievable.

Darren

[CELESCOPE]

Well i think that is a very nice image Martin , the colour i like , a lovely mix and detail 100% ,shame about the wind , but there again there is always something to spoil things and very rare we get 100 % imaging, but its a cracker , i know u are not really happy till you do somersaults and cartwheels ,even at your getting older age ehehhehehe , buta good benchmark for your next one

eheheh

Rog

[Jamie]

Superb image Martin.

You have come so far in such a short time mate.

Well done...

[geoff_k]

Martin

I thought your Saturn was pretty good, but this is excellent.

Trouble is, we are a windy lot in Somerset!

Can't wait to see more images with that scope.

Geoff

[CELESCOPE]

had a play Martin got some more sharpness , but slghtly noisy as well

[MartinB]

Thanks everyone

Rog, the extra sharpening has worked very well. I was going dizzy with this one, in the end I couldn't work out how much sharpening worked best without it starting to look unnatural so decided step it back a little. It all comes down to experience I guess.

[Caz]

Exceptional image Martin. 8)

[barkis]

That sure is a stunner MB. Wind or no wind, you pulled a rabbit out of the hat there me lad. It's a cracker.

We would like more please sir.

Ron.

[themos]

Have you done something to annoy Aiolos? A lovely sight, well done.

[MartinB]

Must have, but he's calmed down now!

[ZOG]

Thats an absolute cracker Martin, the quality of the images on SGL just keeps getting better.