Help me with M51 processing please!

[PhoenixRising]

Hi all,

Well, this is my first "real" attempt at astrophotography. I have some problems though. Light pollution removal, Im useless at it! There seems to be very little colour. And I think that using an 80ED with an 0.85 reducer may not have been the best idea for M81. But when I use my 200P I get alot more tracking errors in Guiding.

Anyway, go easy on me, I made alot of effort for very little reward last night and would like to know if theres anything obvious Im doing wrong, apart from having four darks (too tired to finish em at 4am.) and using the wrong setup (whats the right one, 200P with shorter subs?)

Heres a link to the original tiff after processing in DSS if you fancy a go:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/36181193/m51%2016.TIF

Equipment used:

Skywatcher 80ED Pro,

Field Flattener,

NEQ6 Pro,

Astronomik CLS Clip Filter,

Canon 500D,

Synguider through ST80,

ADM Dual Bar.

[roundycat]

Guiding and focus appear to be good. The target is almost in the centre; those three things are more than a lot manage for their first attempt. The reducer is not a good idea on such a small scope if you are after small targets such as galaxies.

If you did not use darks or flats what processing did you do in DSS? One assumes just aligning/stacking. The jpeg here is very short on actual data but it did clean up slightly. How many subs were there and what exposure. It looks to me as if you could benefit from longer exposure but keep an eye on the max brightness on the images coming straight from the camera. Don't let anything saturate. Small, cleaned up version attached.

Dennis

[PhoenixRising]

Thanks roundycat. Unfortunately, my image already contains 20 flats taken at the end of the session with my laptop screen. And 4 darks, I was tired! But you're right, I'm gonna try the 200p next time. It's like a sail though so I think 3 mins max sub time, also collimations a pain, mine always comes out easily even though things are tight. I can never seem to keep it collimated. Hence the 80ed.

[Cloudwatcher]

A quick sharpened and saturated version.

51 looks a little lonely in the middle there. I see now why Dennis cropped the original.

[PhoenixRising]

Thats better. I realise theres only 50 minutes of data there, but good to see that someone can process out the detail I couldnt find. The long Photoshop learning curve begins here...

[ollypenrice]

4 darks will probably add more noise than they remove. Sorry, but true.

M51 is a tiny target. The optimum focal length is probably around 2.5 metres or more so don't beat yourself up!

I only go for targets that fit my focal length so that might be your first step next time. Use CCD calculator or similar to model your target on the sky.

But as Dennis said, there is an awful lot that is right with this image. Well done.

Olly

[Pete Presland]

its a good start well done,i agree with whats been said leave out the reducer for a bigger image scale

[Dann]

I'm far from an expert at this but had a go with it as I can do with the practice.

I've probably overstretched but you have detail in there.