First Light - M51 with MN190, 460EX and EQ8 - first session this year

[Gina]

16th April 2014 - -  EQ8, MN190, EFW2, Atik 460EX, OAG with Lodestar.

Not the best of clear skies - wispy cloud about   Also a hint of mist and it became totally imopossible after a couple of hours so this session was more about getting back into things after a long time kept indoors by the weather.

Took me quite some time to get set up and to find my target.  I had no previous images of M51 on this laptop to use with AstroTortilla so without the mount calibrated for direction, it took my a fair while to find M51.  I set up for LRGB with 5m unbinned Luminance and 2m binned 2x2 for RGB.  Finding anything to guide on was a problem with the poor clarity but I did get it working for a while.  I got 3 subs of each when I noticed the guiding had failed and the third L sub had oval stars.

I've yet to process all the subs and TBH I'm not sure it's worth bothering - I'm hoping the present clouds will go away and we have clear sky tonight - it's what's forecast.  What I have done is take the first L sub which I thought reasonable and process that using FITS Liberator and Photoshop.

[Martin-Devon]

Good to see you back & posting in the Deep Sky section again Gina! The early data you have on M51 shows you've not lost the touch, and as you collect more subs this will get better & better. As you mention tonight (and tomorrow night apparently) are likely to be clear here in Devon, so fingers crossed we can get some some decent imaging time. The big plus as well is that the Moon is rising later & later now, it won't be visible until midnight tonight, so get those LRGB subs in while you can.

Martin

[Ptarmigan]

I'm hoping the present clouds will go away and we have clear sky tonight - it's what's forecast. 

Good to see you finally getting some astro time in

Keep your fingers xxed, we have a clear blue sky not a cloud in sight here in N.Somerset and the last time I saw a cloud, earlier, they were blowing from me to you ! Sooooo, I dare not say any more in case I put a hex on things but  , , , , !

Edit  : I forgot to say that going by the warmth of the sun till quite late just now, I'd say the transparency is v.good as well.

[Bubbles82]

Yep just nice to see you back posting images. look forward to some more of your fantastic images, It's usually one of your images I show people when they struggle to understand why I'm into astronomy

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[sloz1664]

Good to see you imaging again Gina. It's been a long, long winter. 

Steve

[Gina]

Good to see you back & posting in the Deep Sky section again Gina! The early data you have on M51 shows you've not lost the touch, and as you collect more subs this will get better & better. As you mention tonight (and tomorrow night apparently) are likely to be clear here in Devon, so fingers crossed we can get some some decent imaging time. The big plus as well is that the Moon is rising later & later now, it won't be visible until midnight tonight, so get those LRGB subs in while you can.

Martin

Thank you Martin   It's good to be back   Yes, the lack of moon now will make a big difference   I shall be out there as soon as it's dark enough.

I have run AstroTortilla this afternoon on the images I got a couple of nights ago and solved them.  The colour ones proved better, probably due to the fewer pixels (binned 2x2).  I have Bookmarked M51 ready for tonight.  AT slewed the mount to the target and the scope is currently pointing NE just above the horizon.  So I'm expecting M51 to be in the view but if not an image of the star pattern should soon fix it   I generally use 8x8 binning with a short exposure for the image to solve in AT.  That allows AT to solve the image very quickly, often within a few seconds

[swag72]

Good to see you back out there Gina

[Gina]

Good to see you finally getting some astro time in

Keep your fingers xxed, we have a clear blue sky not a cloud in sight here in N.Somerset and the last time I saw a cloud, earlier, they were blowing from me to you ! Sooooo, I dare not say any more in case I put a hex on things but  , , , , !

Edit  : I forgot to say that going by the warmth of the sun till quite late just now, I'd say the transparency is v.good as well.

Thank you   I think the clouds are getting fewer and further between so fingers crossed.  Visibility is good ATM too - I can clearly see the electricity wires and pylons on the hill to the south about 8 miles away

[Gina]

Yep just nice to see you back posting images. look forward to some more of your fantastic images, It's usually one of your images I show people when they struggle to understand why I'm into astronomy

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Thank you very much   I'm honoured

[Gina]

Good to see you imaging again Gina. It's been a long, long winter. 

Steve

Thank you   Indeed it has!!

[Gina]

Good to see you back out there Gina

Thank you Sara

[Gina]

I hope I haven't missed anyone - what lovely replies   Very encouraging

[Chris]

Good to see you back at it Gina, Hope you get another chance to add to this one soon it would be well worth it with the MN190 and Atik!

Chris

[Gina]

Thank you Chris

[Gina]

Current sky status - no clouds can see Mars with the naked eye but no stars as yet as it's too bright.  Everything set up ready for imaging - I think   In CdC I can see a couple of bright stars near M51, one of which I should be able to manoever into the FOV of the Lodestar.

[Tinker1947]

You may be able to guide on the core of M51.........

[Gina]

Not with an OAG - the guide image is outside the main imaging area.

[Gina]

So far so good   Nice guide star moved into guide image area and guiding is good   Sky is clear and transparency good.

Had to reduce exposure time for Luminance subs to 4m unbinned to avoid overexposing the center of the little galaxy.  RGB 2m 2x2 is fine.  All set up with focus adjusted etc. by 9:45 just half an hour after it got dark enough, so I'm pleased with that 

Here is the first 4m L sub processed in FITS Liberator and Ps for Curves and Space Noise Reduction - cropped to just under 1200px and saved as PNG for upload here.  Also, the PHD Graph screenshot.

[Chris]

Very nice data so far, fingers crossed for a good imaging run

[SnakeyJ]

Looking very nice indeed Gina for single L sub, lots of detail emerging in the core and spiral arms and the guide graph looks nice.   Look forward to seeing this one develop - fingers crossed for a good run of weather

[Gina]

Thank you both   All going well so far - I've fed the 6 Lum subs obtained so far (5m plus 5x4m) through DSS and then PS where I adjusted curves, applied slight sharpening and reduced space noise.  Cropped for upload.

[Ptarmigan]

This is my kind of imaging, seeing it being done and building up,

or, you could say,

I sit here at my laptop with a glass of amber nectar and watch an expert doing all the hard work !LOL!

Nice one Gina, glad the sky held up for you

[Gina]

Thank you

[Gina]

I got 30 sets of subs before conditions deteriorated - that's a total of 5 hours.  So 2 hours L and 1 hour each RGB.  Most of the dark period

I've processed the Luminance but not the RGB yet.  I'll do the rest later but though I'd post progress so far.

Here are two versions - cropped and presented pixel for pixel (full resolution) and full frame resized for posting here.  Both saved in PNG format.

[JohnC64]

nice looking data you have there Gina.  Looking forward to seeing the RGB +L
John