M51 - First DSO

[The_Sarge]

I'm still waiting for my SBIG camera to turn up but with Jupiter badly placed for me at the moment I thought I would try a DSO with my planetary camera.

I couldn't get my guiding to work so late last night abandoned the idea of 5 min subs and tried 60second unguided subs.

I got luminance and red captured but lightening skies stopped me in my tracks.

So here is 20 (of 25) 60second L subs stacked in DSS and processed in photoshop.

Taken with ASI120MM with Baader Luminance filter using the Esprit 100ED (550mm FL @f/5.5) piggybacked on the C11.

Just watching M51 appear on the screen whilst framing the shot was an experience in itself.

Am pleased with the final image and surprised by the detail from such short exposures and integration time especially with a noisy uncooled CMOS camera.

Am currently taking darks while I wait in hope for clear skies.

Paul.

[toxic]

good first dso keep it up 

[Knight of Clear Skies]

Well done, that's a good result unguided.

[zakkhogan]

Fantastic Result,

[ultranova]

well done, came out well,

would love to see the result of say 2 hours worth of 60 second subs

with the same set up as theres quite a bit of detail popping through

with what you have already.

Paul

[The_Sarge]

Thanks everyone for the comments.

Last night was a bust skies didn't clear.

Now undecided as to go for 5 mins subs if I can sort the guiding out or continue with more 60 second unguided subs.

Need to get some colour data too.

Clear skies wanted over Teesside....

Paul.

[The_Sarge]

Still no opportunity to collect more data so rightly or wrongly I have reprocessed what I have to try and bring more out.

Not sure how I feel about this one.

Paul

[ianaiken]

Brilliant first go!  Keep the data and come back to it next year if you are struggling for darkness or clear skies.  Try another re-process somewhere between the original post and the last one.  You've got quite a bit of detail.

[The_Sarge]

Finally got more data for this one.

I added the Baader Neodymium filter to the train and switched to 90 second subs.

Added an additional hours worth of luminance and captured 30 mins each of RGB.

Have had several goes at processing the image and a lot of trial and error.

Feedback hints and suggestions most welcome.

Paul.