M51 - taken on 19/20th June

[Roy Batty]

Finally the clouds parted for me late on the 19th :hello1: , not ideal conditions though as the sky didn't seem very dark even at around midnight. I would have liked to have had crack at M27 but this was too low behind my neighbours roofline - so instead M51 seemed well placed and I hadn't tried imaging it before.

I'm pleased with the result considering this is not the best time of year for this type of subject.

Here's the details: Prime focus DSLR, 44 X 1 min subs, no filtering.

cheers

RB

M51 - 19/20th June 2008

(click to enlarge)

[661-pete]

Well ... if I'm to be the first.

Very nice image there, Roy, lots of detail showing and great focus. The spiral arms look a bit subdued on my monitor in what is a fairly bright galaxy after all, but I can see that the detail is there: perhaps you could consider pulling up the curves a bit? Then raise the black point a bit to hide that tiny bit of vignetting? Hope this helps.

[edit] - looking at this image on a different, brighter monitor, the curves seem about right... Nice result!

[MikeD]

Very nice result.

Mike.

[Sam]

Roy,

That's a very nice image. There's the clumpy bits visible in the spiral arms and quite a bit of colour variation. The dust lanes also stand out well. I think with another 30mins or so of data you'll have a very special image - though with the less than ideal conditions at this time of the year you've done very well indeed.

Sam

[LostNSpace]

A lovely detailed M51 Roy

Mark

[Roy Batty]

Thanks for the comments guys.

I've had another play with the processing on this as I think the cores were a bit blown out whilst I was trying to get increased brightness using curves in PS.

It has been cropped more as well, I think I'm happier with it now.

cheers

RB

(click to enlarge)

[661-pete]

That's looking great now Roy, quite an improvement!

[rawhead]

I've had another play with the processing on this as I think the cores were a bit blown out whilst I was trying to get increased brightness using curves in PS.

It has been cropped more as well, I think I'm happier with it now.

cheers

RB

Wow :shock: What an improvement. Nice one RB

That's a fantastic picure...

[brendant]

Nice image Roy, good job on the reprocess.

You will capture more detail with longer subs, you could try and increase them to 90 or 120 secs. Great result for 60 sec subs.

Brendan

[Roy Batty]

Brendan

I'm a bit limited at the moment regarding sub length as my set up is unguided. I have done 90 second subs on some of my imaging before, but there is a diminishing return as a fair percentage I will reject due to things like wind etc.

I hope to have a guided setup in time for this winter, probably using an SW ED80 piggy backed on my C8-N.

cheers

RB

[blinky]

Thats a very nice image, especially for only 60 secs subs.

[Starflyer]

Lovely M51 Roy, great re-process job, you managed to bring out much more detail.

Ian