My first image in months (M51)

[joecoyle]

Hi

Thanks to a load of rubbish weather recently, I have only just got outside again.

Here is a quickly processed M51 from the weekend - Luminance: 10 x 480 sec // RGB: 6 x 480 sec each

It's my first real attempt at some longish exposures (8 minutes) with my 80ED and the Atik. (I always used to get a max of 2 minutes with the Nexstar 6se, so was impressed with 8 mins!) 

I was worried about my PHD graph at one point, but honestly this scope seems so much easier to guide...

It's a very rough process using PI - just to get me back in the swing of things.

Comments appreciated.

(It's a lossy jpg (couldn't upload the 60MB TIFF!!))

Thanks

Joe

 

 

 

[wimvb]

Looks good to me. Ideally, this target needs a longer focal length, to get more detail and a tighter framing.

Uploading the 60 MB tiff wouldn't have done any good, it can't be viewed without proper software. Jpeg or png is best for on screen viewing.

[joecoyle]

Yeah my nexstar had a focal length of over a metre, but was tricky to guide. Although it did give a tighter frame. This is kind of a personal journey for me with M51! I started out imaging it with a DSLR and have gradually used it to hone my skills. I'll have to dig out my early images.

Even my PNG was too big to upload at nearly 9meg, so I will have to stick with jpegs even if PI warns me that 'its not a true representation of the image'

Joe

[Ags]

PNG would be a better format to use, JPEG has lossy compression.

[wimvb]

14 hours ago, joecoyle said:

even if PI warns me that 'its not a true representation of the image'

PixInsight complains about any format that isn't xisf, it seems. For posting on the net, jpeg is the best. The resolution doesn't need to be more than an ordinary computer screen. But if you want to continue processing an image, xisf is probably best.