M51

[james_screech]

Hi,

I haven’t posted on this forum before and thought I'd post an image I took recently of M51, I'm interested in any comments / suggestions on improving my processing technique. The image consists of 30 x 300sec subs, taken with a modified 300D with a CLS clip filter through an Evostar 80ED mounted on a EQ5 Pro controlled by EQMod with an ST80 + QHY5 + PHD for guiding. Stacked in DSS with post processing in FitsWorks, Photoshop, GradientXTerminator and Noiseware.

Thank you

James

Skywatcher Evostar 80ED DS-Pro

Canon 300D (modified) + CLS clip filter

EQ5 pro

ST80 + QHY5 + PHD autoguider

PST + EQ2 + ToUCam Pro II (mono chipped)

http://www.solar-screech.co.cc/

[steppenwolf]

Welcome to SGL, James. This is a nice image of M51 with good star shapes to you've got the guiding cracked. You have a similar set-up to my earlier one apart from the 300D as mine wasn't modified.

Did you use calibration frames (Bias, Darks and Flats)?

Minor observation? Perhaps a little too much colour saturation but then this personal taste.

[Gina]

Lovely image - nice work And welcome from me too

[james_screech]

Did you use calibration frames (Bias, Darks and Flats)?

Thanks for the comments, I wasn't to sure about the colour myself, but thought I'd experiment a bit with this image

Yes I did use calibration frames about 500 Bias (a bit of overkill I know), 20 darks and 15 Flats.

James

[steppenwolf]

Excellent, James - experimentation is part of the fun and the most important thing is to produce images that YOU like. 500 Bias frames - well, at least they're quick to take! I usually use the same set for about six months and then take a new set.

I loved my 300d and now my wife loves it although she doesn't do astro-imaging with it!