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M51's (both of them)

johnrt

By johnrt
in Imaging - Deep Sky

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johnrt

johnrt

Posted
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Weather has been rubbish for ages as you all know, so while the Lum was shot under nice moonless nights, the RGB was taken with an at least 80% moon, you got to get what you can take here at the moment. M51 was the last object I imaged with my old Atik 314l+, so it's been a while since I had a go at this one.

I did my best to capture as much as possible of the flux being ripped away by the gravitational interactions of the galaxies, I think I have got quite a bit here, certainly deeper than with the old 314l+.

It all ads up to 16 hours exposure with the 6" RC and 460ex, SGPro, calibrated & combined in PI and processed in CS5.

Thanks for looking I hope you like :)

 

32646695174_97ac0e3123_b.jpg

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morimarty

morimarty

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Thats a fantastic M51 John, you have processed the RGB excellently even though it was shot in bright moonlight. Can I ask did you shoot the RGB behind a LPR filter and if so which one as I'm thinking of going down that route.

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johnrt

johnrt

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2 hours ago, morimarty said:

Thats a fantastic M51 John, you have processed the RGB excellently even though it was shot in bright moonlight. Can I ask did you shoot the RGB behind a LPR filter and if so which one as I'm thinking of going down that route.

Hi Martyn,

I do indeed rely on an LP filter for my LRGB work, the IDAS LP2. It was a struggle before I added the LP filter, I had to keep Lum to under 5 minutes and had bad gradients in everything that made this sort of image impossible.

With the IDAS I can shoot Lum at 10-15 minute subs and the background is very manageable. My IDAS is a 2" version which screws in to my focal reducer so is in front of all my filters, I even leave it in for Ha OIII, it has no benefits here but means I don't have to remove the camera to add / remove it spoiling the alignment of my equipment.

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Rodd

Rodd

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Nice image John--I am currently going for the same target.  Haven't had much luck with the weather though.  I might be able to thread a LP filter onto my reducer as well--is the filter you use what you would recommend?  One question regarding M51--the striking blue color.  is that the target level?  Just wondering so as to know what to aim for! 

Rodd

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tomato

tomato

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Very nice image indeed,  very impressive detail.

l love the edge on galaxy  (I must have a thing for edge on spirals) just coming through to the bottom left of the companion galaxy, not found any info on it yet, but perhaps someone on SGL could enlighten me.

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johnrt

johnrt

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16 hours ago, tomato said:

Very nice image indeed,  very impressive detail.

l love the edge on galaxy  (I must have a thing for edge on spirals) just coming through to the bottom left of the companion galaxy, not found any info on it yet, but perhaps someone on SGL could enlighten me.

Thank you!, I've annotated in Pixinsight and it's not in the PGC catalogue, anyone else have any ideas?

 

Image13_registered1_Annotated.thumb.jpg.17bb220819b8cfe88df5b2a499afb2c2.jpg

 

22 hours ago, Rodd said:

Nice image John--I am currently going for the same target.  Haven't had much luck with the weather though.  I might be able to thread a LP filter onto my reducer as well--is the filter you use what you would recommend?  One question regarding M51--the striking blue color.  is that the target level?  Just wondering so as to know what to aim for! 

Rodd

I am a big fan of the IDAS LP2 Rodd, but it really depends on your local light pollution. A filter that works for 1 person may not be as good for another dependent on the spectrum of lights polluting the sky, however I have to say I've never seen anyone say they were no good.

Not sure I follow on the "target level" question, could you explain?

 

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Rodd

Rodd

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12 minutes ago, johnrt said:

Thank you!, I've annotated in Pixinsight and it's not in the PGC catalogue, anyone else have any ideas?

 

Image13_registered1_Annotated.thumb.jpg.17bb220819b8cfe88df5b2a499afb2c2.jpg

 

I am a big fan of the IDAS LP2 Rodd, but it really depends on your local light pollution. A filter that works for 1 person may not be as good for another dependent on the spectrum of lights polluting the sky, however I have to say I've never seen anyone say they were no good.

Not sure I follow on the "target level" question, could you explain?

 

Just wondering if M51 is supposed to be so blue is all. 

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johnrt

johnrt

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8 minutes ago, Rodd said:

Just wondering if M51 is supposed to be so blue is all. 

Sorry Rodd, I get you.

Yes, is pretty much the answer. The smaller galaxy passed through the disk of the larger one around 500-600 million years ago and again as recently as 50-100 million years ago, it is currently just behind it's larger companion. These interactions kicked off a rapid period of new star formation, the spiral arms are blue with the light of the newborn hot stars. :)

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Rodd

Rodd

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15 minutes ago, johnrt said:

Sorry Rodd, I get you.

Yes, is pretty much the answer. The smaller galaxy passed through the disk of the larger one around 500-600 million years ago and again as recently as 50-100 million years ago, it is currently just behind it's larger companion. These interactions kicked off a rapid period of new star formation, the spiral arms are blue with the light of the newborn hot stars. :)

Thanks John--I'll have to remember that.  I have my green and red.  

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tomato

tomato

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Thanks John, for trying to ID that tiny edge on galaxy, I managed 2 hrs total subs on M51 on Monday night with my Atik  OSC 314, and the galaxy is just visible on my final processed image. It also makes me appreciate even more the effort that went into your M51.

Steve    

m51crop.jpg

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