M51 With Alot of LP

[Stu Wilson]

Only 11 x 3min stacked in DSS with Bias and tweaked in PS

From a very light polluted Carlisle sky this evening.

650D Unmodded on SW200P Guided.

My 1st go at M51 this year.

[Demonperformer]

It's very ... blue .

IMO, 3 minutes is a long for subs on a DSLR when you don't include darks. I am not suggesting that you take shorter subs, but that you do take some darks as well. I don't know whether you are set up permanently or not, but I used to find a good time to take darks was while I was dismantling everything at the end of a session. [Remove camera from scope, attach dust cover and let it do its own thing while packing everything else away.]

Not sure what the coloured streaks are. My first thought was hot pixels, but I thought bias frames should have got rid of those. Hopefully someone better qualified will be able to give good advice on how to get rid of them.

That said, for light-polluted Carlisle, it's a good go, with some of the outer areas  becoming visible.

[wimvb]

Nice catch. But you realky do need to add calibration masters. Bias won't remove hot pixels. Darks or clipping when stacking will. Flats will take care of the vignetting and dust bunnies.