M51 - The Whirlpool Galaxy - LRGB - Mayday 2013

[Gina]

M51 with MN190 and Atik 314L+. Guiding with OAG, Lodestar and PHD. Subs :- L 29x5m unbinned and RGB 24x2m binned 2x2.

Stacked in DSS, aligned with RegiStar, combined and processed in PS. I think I've overprocessed it though and will probably have another go at it.

[cfpendock]

That's very nice Gina. You've captured a lot of detail, particularly the surrounding gaseous stuff. But like mine, there is some noise????

Chris

[Keiran]

Very very nice job gina, that looks incredible

[Gina]

That's very nice Gina. You've captured a lot of detail, particularly the surrounding gaseous stuff. But like mine, there is some noise????

Chris

That's very nice Gina. You've captured a lot of detail, particularly the surrounding gaseous stuff. But like mine, there is some noise????

Chris

Thank you Yes, there is noise, I agree. I've just realised why it's not as noise free as I thought - I forgot to turn on the cooling on the camera for half the subs "Needs to pay more attention"

[Gina]

Very very nice job gina, that looks incredible

Thank you Keiran

[x6gas]

Thank you Yes, there is noise, I agree. I've just realised why it's not as noise free as I thought - I forgot to turn on the cooling on the camera for half the subs "Needs to pay more attention"

Ha! Done that one myself

Nice image Gina with plenty of the whispy stuff surrounding the galaxy. I find it very hard to judge how hard to push the stretch on these targets... and the transition from the surrounding stuff to the background is challenging too...

[Daniel-K]

woooo Gina i reckon your getting there with that 190MN looks like ite doing the job for you.

[andyo]

A nice shot Gina plenty of detail a tad noisy and Yep I also forgot to turn the cooler on the camera the other night remembered after a couple of subs lol

[Gina]

Thank you everyone

Had another go at the processing. I think this is a little better...

[sologuitarist61]

That's lovely Gina

[Gina]

Thank you Richard

[Gina]

It's too pink! Here's another tweak As usual though, it needs more data. This is just LRGB and some Ha would help by bringing out the star forming regions. Looks like our run of clear night has ended for a while though

[WaveSoarer]

That's awesome Gina. Really superb. I was out there observing M51 last night. It was very nicely placed and near vertical so I managed to get very clear view. I could see the bridge between the pair of cores and hints of the spiral arms. It's one of my favourite DSOs and your image really shows it in its fully glory.

Dave