An up and down evening, and here's the up: M51/NGC 5195 12/03/08

[Whippy]

So after Spurs' excruciating UEFA cup exit at the hands of PSV Eindhoven (sudden death penalties arrgh!!), I thought I'll have a second stab with the new toys setup. So after two hours of finally getting everything working, 20 mins of wasted exposures I managed to grab a few shots and here's the result. T'was a bit gusty out hence the stars are a bit oval (PHD going 'donk' as it struggles to track the guide star!) and more exposure time is clearly needed, but it was 2am and I was knackered, still am! More caffiene please.....

So: Atik 16hr with Neodymium and IR cur filters on my WO ZS110, PHD/QHY5 doing the guiding on my soon to be departed <snif> MN56. 4x5mins, 2x4mins, 2x3mins and 1 2 minute exposures stacked in DSS and cropped, levelled and curved in Photoshop.

(click to enlarge)

Tony..

[algol]

nice pic tony, very nice.

so are they two galaxies clashing together or something?

[jgs001]

Nice one Tony. Looks good to me.

[Beyond_Vision]

Well done Tony well worth the battle to capture it.

Regards

Kevin

[Jamie]

Way to go Tony....

I can tell you are gonna be an accomplished imager very soon mate.... 8)

[Roy Batty]

Now there's dedication ...... well done!

The notion briefly flitted through my head of doing some imaging last night, but that wind was still a big problem so I didn't bother.

RB

[Whippy]

Thanks all . If only Spurs had won in normal time, I would have had more time outside .

nice pic tony, very nice.

so are they two galaxies clashing together or something?

AFAIK, they've had a 'brush' with each other and the 'bridge' is M51 absorbing part of NGC 5195. If anyone knows better, I'd love to know .

Tony..

[Paxo]

Excellent picture Tony, your a natural mate!

Steve..

[MikeD]

Great result, nice detail and a good core too.

Mike.

[Beyond_Vision]

Thanks all . If only Spurs had won in normal time, I would have had more time outside .

nice pic tony, very nice.

so are they two galaxies clashing together or something?

AFAIK, they've had a 'brush' with each other and the 'bridge' is M51 absorbing part of NGC 5195. If anyone knows better, I'd love to know .

Tony..

I have read that they aren't connected and also have read that they are, so I am not sure.

Regards

Kevin

[SteveL]

Ferk! Thats just amazing... got the original RAW frames lying around anywhere? Am sure there is more detail in there...

[Andrew*]

Fantastic stuff, Tony 8)

You'll be churning the stunners out thick and fast from now on.

Andrew

[MartinB]

Well done Tony, all the frustrations melt away when everything starts to work.

The star shape isn't too bad at all and easily fixed http://stargazerslounge.com/index.php/topic,10395.msg110316.html#msg110316 Often the wind can give weird shaped stars which are difficult to mend

[CELESCOPE]

Ah now thats good Tony , very nice M51 super core as well and some good detail , great image mate against all the odds

well done

Rog

[SteelRat]

That's a flippin great pic Tony - Nice detail in there 8) Looks like you've been imaging for years.

[SteveL]

Tony, I`m not sure you really know quite how much data you have in this image. Go check the account you uploaded the fits files to for a PSD file and two jpgs....

(I promised I wouldnt post it until Tony has seen it!)

[SteveL]

My attempt at it from the FITs files than Tony so kindly allowed me to use and abuse

[Whippy]

Wahey! Now that's processing! Thanks mate .

Tony..

[SteelRat]

Ooooh nice 8)

[lunator]

Steve

Nice edit

Tony well done on the image as the data capture was all your work.

Cheers

Ian

[Sam]

Excellent shot Tony - M51 is such a joy to look at (when I can find it!)

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

Gee whizz that's coming on nice now.

Kaptain Klevtsov

[LostNSpace]

Very nice Tony, great capture

Mark