M51 - 2nd guided attempt!

[PunkJay]

Morning all,

Second attempt with my new equipment (HEQ5 + guiding) and it went fairly well.

Pushed the exposures up to 8 minutes, and I'm still getting what I call acceptable stars.

For some reason my darks did not work as well as on my first attempt as the main hot pixels were not removed, and my first attempt at a flat field just produced some very funky colours when post processing. Fortunately I was able to produce some passable images this morning, so I am a happy chappie!

Full shot:

Cropped:

The lack of a flat frame left a major gradient in the middle of the shot, however the funky colour seems to complement M51.

Again - I have probably gone overboard on the colour saturation, however the colours are pretty sweet ;-)

As always - feedback or suggested improvements warmly welcomed!

cs,

- Jason

[jimness]

I like it. I like it a lot.

[PunkJay]

Just been fiddling with the levels and colour balance again. I always seem to want to tweak images just after I post them - must learn to be patient!

Wide:

Cropped:

Thanks Jimness :-)

Jason

[tollytastic1]

I like this image very much, well done!!

Paul

[iwatkins]

I like the rich colours, really makes it pop

Cheers

Ian

[Zul]

Fantastic!

[Spikey]

Some really nice detail coming out there, how many subs did you stack?

[PunkJay]

Spikey - 13 x 8 min subs

Longest exposures I've taken to date :-)

I'm going to experiment with 10 minute subs on my next session as the difference in detail being captured is quite satisfying compared to my previous 3-4 minute subs.

Thanks for the feedback all!

- Jason

[Spikey]

Spikey - 13 x 8 min subs

Longest exposures I've taken to date :-)

I'm going to experiment with 10 minute subs on my next session as the difference in detail being captured is quite satisfying compared to my previous 3-4 minute subs.

Thanks for the feedback all!

- Jason

Very detailed for the exposure time, well done.

[soggybongo]

cant wait to test my guide system out when i see pics like this. Blinkin clouds

[PunkJay]

Scott - As I had been advised, guiding really has turned my imaging sessions around.

No more worrying about dodgy 1/2/3 star scope alignment, and the ability to keep nearly 100% of the images being captured. Wish I'd invested in this ages ago!

:-)

- Jason

[Uranium235]

Youre getting better at the dark art of guiding

But, did you take any flats? Its just that you seem to have clipped the background levels a bit too much in order to reduce the purple patch in the centre of the image. A set of flats would sort that out in a jiffy, though they are best done at the time of imaging - which might be tricky for you with an 8" SCT.

If youre having one or two stubborn hot/dead pixels, then theres nothing wrong with a tiny dab of clone brush (as long as youre not adding anything that should not be there)

[Quatermass]

Lovely amount of detail in there, hide all layers will get rid of that gradient but who cares you have all the detail you need to work with and its a great image really well done guiding is the way to go for sure. Now if the clouds would just clear off we could get out there and do some more sigh..

[Astroblagger]

Lovely detail in the spiral arms, well done.

[Anweniel]

Fantastic image, congratulations

[PunkJay]

Youre getting better at the dark art of guiding

But, did you take any flats? Its just that you seem to have clipped the background levels a bit too much in order to reduce the purple patch in the centre of the image. A set of flats would sort that out in a jiffy, though they are best done at the time of imaging - which might be tricky for you with an 8" SCT.

If youre having one or two stubborn hot/dead pixels, then theres nothing wrong with a tiny dab of clone brush (as long as youre not adding anything that should not be there)

Hi Uranium235,

I did take flats last night, however it was my first attempt at trying to capture them and I seem to have done something wrong as they introduced a large coloured gradient from the right to left of the image, so I was better off with the non-flattened image. I suspect my pillow case / LED flashlight combination was to blame, so back to the drawing board on that one.

Yes - I do agree that there is a fair amount of clipping of the black levels. Hopefully correctly captured flats will help resolve this next time.

Thank you very much for the feedback - I really appreciate it! :-)

cs,

- Jason

[Uranium235]

Youre welcome Jason, you might have another chance tonight as its going to be clear Bit of a full(ish) moon though, so options are limited. For flats you might want to take a look a the gerd neumann flatfield panels they work a treat, but for an 8" it might get a tad expensive.

[PunkJay]

Youre welcome Jason, you might have another chance tonight as its going to be clear Bit of a full(ish) moon though, so options are limited. For flats you might want to take a look a the gerd neumann flatfield panels they work a treat, but for an 8" it might get a tad expensive.

Think I might try an LCD monitor displaying a white image. My astro budget has been well and truly exceeded over the past few months, so a dedicated flat field panel is a bit beyond my reach at the moment :-/

[Quatermass]

Cheap way of doing flats pillow case torch method

Sent from my GT-S5670 using Tapatalk

[1981suede]

Cheap way of doing flats pillow case torch method

You sure that is working QM? I thought you needed a very even spread of light for flats and that picture indicates the torchlight is mostly centred? But hey, if its working for you then fair enough

[ianaiken]

Brilliant image, I like the way you adjusted the colours in the later post. Great detail and close shot of this galaxy.

[sanmatt]

very nice indeed!

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Like the image. If you want to, you can do a quick and dirty background flattening with a so-called rolling ball filter (subtract background in ImageJ). It is not really a replacement for flats, but it can remove some background. I tried it and got this: