A very quick and dirty M51

[Catanonia]

We had a nice clear night the other night and after the Jellyfish Nebula IC443 had gone below the trees I was lost as to what to image with the 568mm under a full moon with no real other Ha targets around.

Then I remembered, I got the TS SuperNewt primarily as a fast F2.8 @ FL 568mm but it could quite happily run at its native 800mm F4 default configuration without the reducer / corrector in place.

Full moon, M51 in the right place and no MPCC for the scope at this native length. WHY NOT

So I set it up with very rough focusing and tried to place M51 as near to the centre of the FOV to hopefully crop out the bad stars due to no MPCC.

I left it running on 1min unbinned subs at F4 to see what would happen and went to bed.

In the end, I had 29 x 1 min subs per LRGB channel that were useful.

So after a quick thought, and a bit of processing, here is the result of the experiment. Heavily cropped to get rid of horrid stars and gradients.

Not too shabby for 1min subs LRGB under a full moon and no MPCC : Not normally what I would do LRGB imaging under a full moon.

Definately needs proper focusing and a MPCC, but looks promising in its native format this SuperNewt.

[ollypenrice]

Promising is an understatement. The colour is fabulous. I love those rich, deep golds - and that is with the sky awash in moonlight. Remarkable!

Olly

[Spikey]

Looks better than the 100 minuter I did the other day Cat.

[morimarty]

Hi cat

Taking into account the full moon while capturing LRGB, thats an exceptional image full of detail. even at its native f4 thats some photon collector you have!

[Chris]

Thats a fab 51:), I would love 1/10th of your colour in my images:D

[Sam]

The first thing that strikes me with your image is the stunning colour. Well done the colour is fantastic.

[Zul]

Great shot!

[Catanonia]

Thanks all. Might have to invest in a MPCC to use this scope during galaxy season as it looks promising at its native FL as well as its reduced one.

[Viv]

That's lovely - colours are stunning.

[Anweniel]

1 minute subs... damn Cat I think that supernewt is so fast it just overtook some neutrinos ..

[Catanonia]

1 minute subs... damn Cat I think that supernewt is so fast it just overtook some neutrinos ..

LOL Looks like I will be needing a MPCC for the summer galaxy season then at this rate. Native F4 for galaxies and then fast F2.8 for widefield.

Thanks all.

[Viv]

I tried M51 last night - just horrendous !!

Having a orange street light straight under didn't help - but didn't think it would be that bad ......

[JimStan]

Don't you just HATE IT, when people apologize all over the place for their "terrible" pictures, and then show you something you would DIE FOR, to equal ?

I do !

Jim S.

[Quatermass]

If that's quick and dirty I would love to see the filthy version!