M51, hopefully with no vignetting?

[pixueto]

After so many cloudy nights, I couldn't resist tonight and had a go with my budget guiding system. I also wanted to try my new Aurora LE panel as I've been struggling with vignetting since I started imaging 4 months ago. Unfortunately, it was really windy tonight out there and had to throw away most subs. The ones I kept were also quite dodgy. Well this is what I got: 19 subs, 3 mins each. After taking... 60 flats!!! I was wondering if I've completely removed any uneven illumination?

Thanks.

[steppenwolf]

There is still a brightness graduation across your image - bright bottom left and dark top right. This could be a dodgy set of flats or it could have been the sky conditions - conditions here last night were pretty appalling although the sky 'appeared' quite good! How did you take your flats?

I have adjusted the brightness graduation in your image and reduced the overly blue appearance (possibly caused by moisture high in the atmosphere) - hope you don't mind:-

[Gina]

I think that's pretty good considering the conditions

[pixueto]

Thanks guys! Thank you for your feedback and for improving the picture.

For the flats I used Aurora LE panels:

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/gerd-neumann-aurora-flat-field-panels/gred-neumann-flatfield-panels.html

Can I ask you steppenwolf, how did you remove that gradient? Pixinsight?

I think visibility was quite good yesterday but the wind was too much for trying 3 minutes subs. I’m actually surprised that the final picture didn’t come up worse than that.

[steppenwolf]

The Aurora panel should be fine so I guess this is sky conditions - perhaps the Moon which was present last night?

My workflow on your image was:-

1. Adjust Levels to darken background

2. Adjust Hue/Saturation of red channel to remove resultant red tinge to background

3. Pin background in Curves and adjust brightness

4. Run Gradient Xterminator on background selection

5. Run 'Noise Ninja' plug-in to smooth image

6. Use small eraser brush on key features of the galaxy to retrain detail

Gradient Xterminator is a very useful tool for true gradients but should not be used in place of flats!

Well done on capturing some nice data in poor conditions.

[pixueto]

Thank you very much for sharing.

[Quatermass]

Nice one pix looking very good glad you got out and did some imaging you can tell we all managed to get out by the number of posts the next day allways a good sign. I would recommend using gradxterminator its a bit pricey but it does a fantastic job why not download the trail and give it a go should really help with those grads they are a pain for sure.

[pixueto]

Nice one pix looking very good glad you got out and did some imaging you can tell we all managed to get out by the number of posts the next day allways a good sign. I would recommend using gradxterminator its a bit pricey but it does a fantastic job why not download the trail and give it a go should really help with those grads they are a pain for sure.

Thanks QM. I got the free version of Pixinsight. I as hoping that with the new aurora panels I wouldn't have to worry again about the vignetting in my images but I can see a huge improvement anyway. Also, at 4am that was the start of dawn! Maybe I added some subs with some light coming from the east. There is no much time now for imaging as at 10pm it's barely dark now!

[Gina]

I had to wait until 11pm last night before the sky was dark enough for DSO imaging.