M15 Inbetween The Clouds

[russellhq]

A single 5min capture of M15, ISO800, guided and processed in Photoshop.

Really need to do some flats...

[russellhq]

Got up this morning and took flats and bias. Flats really did the trick with the vignetting!!

[russellhq]

You really could go on forever tweaking your subjects!

I like M15 in this one but not keen on the background space, it's a bit bright.

M15_Glob_Small_V2.tif

[Gina]

Yes, you need darkd and flats, biases can help too

[Dipper]

Lovely little cluster. Not easy being an em fifteen with so many people imaging the Great Cluster in Hercules.

[russellhq]

Thanks Gina. I took some darks last night then flats and biases this morning. Flats were taken with the camera in the same position with a t-shirt over the end of the telescope pointing it at the sky.

The flats made the most impact, followed by darks then biases.

I don't think it helped I only had 2 good lights.

Next time I'm going to try a shorter exposure, the core is blown out in this set.

I also made the mistake of looking up the Messier on wikipedia. The image they have is amazing compared to mine!

http://en.wikipedia....wiki/Messier_15

[Gina]

Yes, but don't let it put you off And yes, you really need to get something like a dozen or two lights. It's a good idea to check you subs to see if anything is getting blown out, and if so reduce your exposure. Another option is to take some short lights and some longer ones to cover both the light parts and the fainter parts. Of course, this can be more fiddly to process but can yield great results.

[russellhq]

Thanks Gina. I think the approach for globs like this is quite a bit different for something like the Dumbbell Nebula (my last subject).

I think I'll try ISO800 instead of 1600, and shorten the exposure. Then, as you say, take a couple lights and see if the core is OK.

[Pete Presland]

that's quite a nice image, i agree shorter exposures and more of them and some calibration frames will help.i don't seem to be likely to get subs any longer than 3 minutes with the light pollution around