Wide DSLR M51

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

After M42 had gone into the murk I pointed the 'scope at M51 to see if I could bag it. The Tal was happily zapping away at it with the CCD on it so I thought we'd better see what happens with the DSLR.

Nikon D70s (new toy), 200mm f/5 SW Newt, Neodymium filter, 90 seconds X 53 plus 2 darks pinched from the earlier M42 shoot. 640ISO no guiding.

(click to biggerize)

Stacked in DSS then CS2 for false flat, levels and curves.

Kaptain Klevtsov

[beamish]

Glad you managed to bag something last night KK, Good one too.

Karlo

[MartinB]

The DSLR has done a good job but really looking forward to the Tal and atik pic

[radioactive]

Very good result KK you must be pleased with your effort 8) I was trying like mad to grab a Galaxy last night but never caught anything on the screen :insects1:

[RobH]

Glad you've had some clear skies KK....nice widefield shot there

Hope you don't mind, but I've had a play with it and smoothed the background.

2 main steps involved.

1. Duplicate layer/ select colour range and sample the background in several places.

Then feather the selection by 1 pixel

I then added this as a layer mask and applied FILTER/NOISE/DUST AND SCRATCES.

Played with the settings on this until the graininess was gone.

This also removed a lot ofthe stars so, using the eraser tool, I erased that layer, only where each star was, to show the original unsmoothed layer and bring the stars back.

2. There was still some banding showing so I made a false flat by duplicating the image, cloning out the stars and galaxy, without blurring first, and then applied a blur and subtracted the layer in the usual manner.

Cheers

Rob

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

Loads better Rob, thanks for the advice and the reprocess.

Kaptain Klevtsov

[barkis]

It's usually you doing the tweaking KK, but I agree with you, Robs dabble has transformed it.

Great pic.though.

Ron.

[markcol]

Good shot KK, hope you enjoy your new toy!

Mark

[zhgutas]

Nice widefield there KK, and really good processing , Rob

marius