M51 in a little scope

[dmahon]

My little scope isn't designed for tiny galaxies, but that's what seems to be about at the moment. I also have difficulty getting the colour to shine through, it seems to get washed away and everything looks a bit monochrome. I found the shadows/highlights and the saturation in Photoshop, which have helped. Any other tips?

LRGB - 10 of each (600s L 300s RGB):

[Daniel-K]

HLGV will zap that green noise away and make your image even better. i think for a small scope youve done really well and you got a faint bit of tidal stream from the ngc galaxy

[Steve 1962]

Hi Dave

Well I really like the wide field you've achieved. There's a great routine for boosting colour in this book...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lessons-Masters-Astronomical-Processing-Practical/dp/1461478332

Steve

[dmahon]

OK - HLGV applied

[Steve 1962]

Very nice

[Chris]

You've done great, lovely star and galaxy colour and a fairly deep image looking at the tidal stream and background galaxies!

Chris

[Daniel-K]

bring the red channel in line to balance the background aswell 

[Jannis]

Looks very ncie to me. A bit on teh red side that last one, but otherwise really nice, and quite deep and sharp.

[TrickySpot]

Smashing!! 

[dmahon]

OK, here it is with the red down a bit. Thanks for all the advice.

[Martin-Devon]

Dave, I think the last version you've posted looks very good. I've always found that getting vibrant star colour with LRGB is tricky as well. The boost star colour in Noel's actions seems to work reasonably well though on some images, so maybe give this a try.

Martin

[Jannis]

That last one there looks really good!

[granty515]

Wow amazing pic

[paraletic mirror]

I hink thats amazing, all of them top job

[DaveHKent]

With an 80mm scope, I'm very impressed. Mine is 90mm and I thought I would never get that sort of detail. It has given me inspiration.

[sologuitarist61]

Considering the scope, that has come out very well indeed!

[Atacamallama]

Try drizzling? Sometimes I find that makes up for short focal length, but the colour can suffer a bit.