Another moon soaked shot of M 51

[simmo39]

Hi all, I seem to only get clear sky and chance to shoot targets when the moon is out and shining bright in my garden! Anyway, had another go at M 51 just out of spite! taken with my trusty SW 130 pds and modded canon 600D. Again there are better pics of this target on this site but im pleased with the results.

 

And a crop of another version.

 

 

Hints and tips welcome.

[Peco4321]

I think these look great. 

[wavydavy]

Yep its an astronomy fact when the moon is out, its clear, once the moon bogs off it will be cloudy! Nice shot though............

[steviemac500]

Can I ask what your specs were for this please?

[simmo39]

10 minutes ago, steviemac500 said:

Can I ask what your specs were for this please?

Hi. It was 20 x 4 mlns at 800iso. 20 darks and an old master bias. All stired up in Pi.

[andyo]

That's a very nice shot with good detail well done

[laudropb]

Very nice image.

[wimvb]

Lovely image, with lots of detail and colour in the galaxy, and round stars. Do you use guiding?

The crop seems to show some residue from a satelite track.

There is also some pattern in the background noise which is due to stacking. Using Cosmetic correction during the calibration/integration process can keep this under control. To completely get rid of this you will need to dither.

[simmo39]

13 hours ago, wimvb said:

Lovely image, with lots of detail and colour in the galaxy, and round stars. Do you use guiding?

The crop seems to show some residue from a satelite track.

There is also some pattern in the background noise which is due to stacking. Using Cosmetic correction during the calibration/integration process can keep this under control. To completely get rid of this you will need to dither.

Hi. Thanks for the pointer. Yep I use guiding but it's the SW auto guider so no dithering. Will look into cosnetic correction. Is it easy to do? I'm also still trying to get my head around Pi? Lol

[andyo]

2 hours ago, simmo39 said:

Hi. Thanks for the pointer. Yep I use guiding but it's the SW auto guider so no dithering. Will look into cosnetic correction. Is it easy to do? I'm also still trying to get my head around Pi? Lol

Yes cosmetic correction is a doddle to do in PI and is then easy to add this into the batch processing script. I highly recommend Harry pages PI tutorials. When doing the cosmetic correction  if you use the auto correction tab(recommended)then you don't need to use a master dark. 

[wimvb]

Agree with Andy, but one more thing: don't forget to check the CFA check box whenever you use OSC (CCD or DSLR), otherwise the cosmetic correction won't work properly. I've forgotten this on more than one occasion and had to restart my calibration process.

[simmo39]

37 minutes ago, wimvb said:

Agree with Andy, but one more thing: don't forget to check the CFA check box whenever you use OSC (CCD or DSLR), otherwise the cosmetic correction won't work properly. I've forgotten this on more than one occasion and had to restart my calibration process.

Hi. Thanks for the tips. Will start looking into it for my next pics. Only a month till next full moon and clear sky! Lol.