M101 ........ at last!

[swag72]

Ever since getting my new scope, I've been itching to get a colour image, so why do I pick something that is widely accepted to be a difficult one?! The weather has not been kind and this has taken a month to collect just over 13 hours. Who says that it's always sunny in Spain?

I was also wanting to try to put some of my new found processing techniques to the test aka Mr Penrice

I think that this has come out quite well, although I know that I should have got more data, but I was getting impatient.

Details:

M: HEQ5

T: Takahashi FSQ85

C: Atik 314L+

R: 32x 300s G : 32x300s B: 22x300s

L: 13x 900s

Ha: 7x1200s

Flats and bias calibrated in PI and processed in CS5.

The difference in the blue data is purely due to the thoughtful weather! Now the 460EX is back on, the reducer as well - Let's go target hunting!!

M101 by swag72, on Flickr

[MikeD]

Very nice result, great star colours, like you say it just needs more time on the luminance.

The background immediately behind the galaxy looks a little dark compared to the star field background when viewed on my iPad which looks a little unnatural.

Looking forward to more.

mike.

[Naemeth]

You could always add more data later, great shot . If only DSOs and Galaxies actually looked like that through a scope visually..

[Martin-Devon]

It's a lovely image Sara - well done.

[swag72]

Thanks for looking all. Great feedback Mike, thank you for that. I think this has suffered in a couple of ways. Firstly there was a lot of noise in the luminance as I pushed for the fainter stuff, I should have redone it. That of course gave me a noisier background than I would have liked. Also a dose of Noel's local contrast enhancement didn't help.

I should have been more careful all round really!

[Gina]

Well I think that's a beauty Sara - lovely colours and nice and sharp

[JamesF]

Agreed. Gorgeous colours.

James

[swag72]

Thanks Gina and James - Appreciate you looking

[opticalpath]

Very nice indeed, Sara, and a foretaste of what's to come from the Tak!

As you said, it's a tough subject that seems to need just as much luminance as you can give it. I'm currently working on one taken from my light-polluted site ..... 100 x 300 sec. and it's still not enough!

Adrian

[Superdavo]

Nice shot!

[sologuitarist61]

Beautiful detail and lovely colour

[swag72]

Thanks all - I will take this as a lesson learnt - MORE LUMINANCE!!!!

[Gina]

That's what most of mine need too

[cloudbuster]

beautiful vivid colours sara...well done!

[ultranova]

Great combination Tak and 314L+ Looks like its doing the business as well

smashing shot,

one thing I am learning at the moment, you can never have enough data

well done Sara

Paul

[swag72]

Thanks Bob and Paul - The 314L+ is off the Tak now and the 460EX is on, just need to find some nice big targets!!!

[Scott]

Now you're just showing off . That is absolutely stunning. I think you might have been a little bit modest on another thread when you said you weren't up to speed with the processing (or something like that). You should be very proud of this effort. (I'm off to delete my effort of M51 now ).

:icon_salut:

[swag72]

Cheers Scott - This is the first process I have done since returning from Olly's in France. Watching a master at work (Olly!!) has certainly given me some ideas and helped overall. There's no modesty involved, I'm just never happy with what I produce

[Scott]

Ahh the perfectionist... a sign of a true artist .

Olly certainly has helped so many people in so many ways on this forum. A true champion.

[AndyUK]

There's no modesty involved, I'm just never happy with what I produce

Ditto! Seriously though, after all those months (years?) trying to get colours in the stars, I don't think you need concern yourself with that any more! I think this is a super first light with the BabyQ

[Mark72]

Great work Sara in all aspects,

I think repairing background will not be a great deal here.

Mark

[swag72]

Cheers Andy and Mark.

I have found that seeking perfection (and being some way off it has to be said) is definitely hampering AP for me in one respect. But I won't bore you with why on this thread!!

@Mark - How would you suggest to sort out the background? I'd be interested to hear.

[farunj]

Wow!! That's simply amazing!! Beautiful!

[opticalpath]

..... @Mark - How would you suggest to sort out the background? I'd be interested to hear.

Me too!

The problem I'm having is with those elusive, very faint spiral arms on the south side of the galaxy. They're only just visible above the sky background level and defy attempts to make them stand out more clearly, without increasing noise to an unacceptable level.

All I can think of is yet more data needed!

Adrian

[Mark72]

Sara,

I think with your final image you can just de-noise background a bit masking the galaxy in PI or if it's PS you can select all these black dots and use median filter which should smooth it a bit.

If starting from scratch and trying to address the problem Adrian mentioned I'd need to check the raw master Lum. May be something can be done with wavelets in PI.

Mark