Lastnights efforts - M42 and a poor M51

[SteveL]

Blimey,it was cold last night (and colder still tonight!).

Anyway, here goes:

OTA: William Optics ZenithStar 66 SD + 0.8 FR/FF

Guiding: NS8GPS @ f/10 + DSI-C + PHD

Imaging: QHY8 + MaximDL, 40 x 30s, 20 x 240s, 15 x 480s, CLS

Stacked: DeepSkyStacker

Post Process: ImagesPlus + PSCS2 + Noel Carboni’s AstroTools

Note #1: I left the blackpoint quite grey to show allthe dusty bits but it also shows someof the oddities when I remove the gradient

Note #2: This damn near killed my 1Gb laptop!

Think thats OK? Well, click >>HERE<< for the 8Mb 2886x3492 version, or clickon the image above.

This is a process straight from stacking, and I may go back and do a three layer mask version of this (on my desktop... think I`ll leave the laptop to recover)

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M51

OTA: Celestron NexStar 8 GPS @ f/7.(something)

Camera: QHY8 OSC

Guiding: William Optics ZenithStar 66 SD + DSI-C + PHD

Imaging: MaximDL/CCD, 10 x 900s, CLS Filter

Processing: DeepSkyStacker, ImagesPlus, Photoshop CS2 + Noel Carboni’s Astro Tools

Note: I didnt nail the focus on this, and it shows

[steppenwolf]

Fabulous M42 and Running Man, Steve - just look at all that cosmic dust!!

[markcol]

Superb nice and deep M42 Steve, you're not wrong about the cold last night either!

It'll be brassy tonight too.

Mark

[Black Shuck]

M42 is a cracker Steve.

Had an hour out with the bino's last night and nearly froze - tonight really gonna be Brass Monkeys!!

Cheers

Bill£

[barkis]

Just magic stuff Steve. I would spend a night in the freezer if I could come out with goodies like that.

Ron.

[MikeD]

M42 is a stunner sooooooo very deep.

and plenty of nice dust detail in m51 too.

Mike.

[SteveL]

Updated version, more colour, more contrast, maybe a bit too far, i`m not sure

Click on the image for the HUGE version

[barkis]

The smaller version is superb, I need cinemascope for the biggerized one. I just drool over little M42.

Ron.

[MartinB]

Superb work Steve. Love the way you've handled the background.

[mcut]

those are amazing.

are you sure you didn't just hack into the Hubble

[SteveL]

Shhh! dont tell the wife.... she thinks I have more than enough kit already