M51 LRGB....finally ruff processed!

[cloudbuster]

hi all

only a rough process, as ive still much to learn about both imaging and pixinsight.

still dont know how to map the Ha into the image....any thoughts?

cheers for looking

bob

[RobH]

Hi Bob,

Some good depth and colour in there, and you've caught the edge-on spiral to the lower right of M51 too,

As you obviously are aware, there's some trailing. I would say that you need to get your guiding better before worrying about narrowband data, as this is an area where longer subs are useful.

What camera are you using, and how are you guiding the scope?

Adding Ha to an image is easy.....using photoshop, simply add your Ha to the red data using blend mode 'lighten'.

If you're using a mono camera, then add it to your red as a layer on top, then flatten the image, and if you're using a colour camera, separate the colur channels first then proceed the same way.

Cheers

Rob

[cloudbuster]

Many thanks for your kind words of praise rob, but on reflection I have to admit that this effort is truly awful! It is blotchy cos I omitted some flats, and yes there are also star trails. In answer to yor question, I am using phd thru an equinox 66. One thing I am pleased about tho is that, thanks to the people above, I now finally have an LRGB image! Many thanks rob for your pointers for adding ha...the data for which I already have, but I have pix insight.

cheers

bob

[Gina]

It's a good start and I echo what Rob said above You haave a good depth and have brought the faint stuff out well, probably at the expense of the core detail but you'll learn to get that right by the careful use of curves. Yes, there's a lot to learn but it's very rewarding as you get things better and better Good luck

[swag72]

At the risk of repeating Rob and Gina, here's my thoughts. You mentioned yourself flats ....... You NEED flats!! There's no getting away from it if you want to improve your imaging. They will deal with dust bunnies and gradients and not at the expense of detail either, which is a good thing. You've captured some faint stuff which is excellent and good to see. Have you used SNCR in PI? that will probably deal with the green in the background.

More data........... Will give you a cleaner image and one that needs less processing.

And guiding ......... Perhaps go for shorter exposures or sort out why you've got trailing.

[RobH]

Bob, if you scroll through your individual subs, does the imzage slowly march across the screen?

If it does, then this is differential flexure, meaning that your guide scope is slowly shifting as compared to your imaging scope.

Does the guiding seem fine in PHD? If this is the case then that's another pointer to diff flexure.

Cheers

Rob

[cloudbuster]

thanks sara....sncr applied (see attached)....and yes i intend to re-process with the rest of the flats (all included except for green).

Rob: i think i had a bad night or two guiding....when i re-process, i'll omit more of the bad frames.

[nytecam]

Nice effort and maybe reproduced to a smaller scale to minimise the slight star trailing.

[MartinB]

I've attached my first LRGB galaxy image. You're a long way past that!

I don't think your star shapes are entirely due to tracking errors. There seems to be a misalignment of the blue looking at the brighter stars which I don't think is due to chromatic aberration.