Where's my M51

[f33n3y]

Hi all,

Novice here, 2nd attempt at imaging DSO. Aimed to capture M51 last night but think I might have been off target. I thought my polar and synscan alignment was pretty good and synscan seemed to be on target for other objects.

Can anyone tell me if I was off target or just didn't get enough data? I have tried matching the surrounding stars to other images of the area but can't seem to figure it out. I have attached the .tif output from DSS. I have played with levels and curves but can't reveal anything yet.

If it's bad news, can anyone at least identify the faint fuzzy for me?

Thanks in advance

 

Details:

Skywatcher 200PDS + HEQ5Pro mount

Lights 60x60sec ISO 800

10 darks, 10 bias

 

Autosave.tif

[almcl]

Here you go!  Just a little bit off.  The faint fuzzy is NGC 5422.

I got this result from http://nova.astrometry.net which took less than 20 secs to process it.

There's a free program, All Sky Plate Solver, which can achieve the same result if you don't have internet access from your imaging rig.  Takes a little bit of setting up but once done it solves very quickly and removes a lot of the frustration (been there, many, many times!)

 

[f33n3y]

16 minutes ago, almcl said:

Here you go!  Just a little bit off.  the faint fuzzy is NGC 5422.

I got this result from http://nova.astrometry.net which took less than 20 secs to process it.

There's a free program, All Sky Plate Solver, which can achieve the same result if you don't have internet access from your imaging rig.  Takes a little bit of setting up but once done it solves very quickly and removes alot of the frustration (been there, many, many times!)

 

Ahh thank you, much appreciated.Looks like they tools could come in handy.

So I was on the wrong side of Ursa Major, jeees! Learning curve indeed. At least I captured something

 

[michael8554]

If you navigate to a nearby star you recognise eg Alkaid, and Synch on it, then the small goto move to M51 should be in your frame, if not spot on.

Centre Alkaid

Press Esc for several secs until screen flashes

Enter will Synch

Then goto M51

You could also use the Synch star to focus 

Michael 

 

[f33n3y]

On 05/04/2018 at 19:56, almcl said:

Here you go!  Just a little bit off.  The faint fuzzy is NGC 5422.

I got this result from http://nova.astrometry.net which took less than 20 secs to process it.

There's a free program, All Sky Plate Solver, which can achieve the same result if you don't have internet access from your imaging rig.  Takes a little bit of setting up but once done it solves very quickly and removes a lot of the frustration (been there, many, many times!)

 

Thought I'd provide a follow up on this one. Thanks to your advice above, I managed to track down M51 last night. My star alignment was poor first time around (thought I had aligned to Arcturus but it was a nearby star...don't ask haha) but with all sky plate solver I was able to figure this out early and redo my alignment!

Only managed around 30x60sec subs before the clouds rolled in but was just so glad to see the whirlpool pop up on BackyardEOS! Had a quick play at processing today. Need to study more processing tutorials but chuffed with what I managed to pull out from such little data

Thanks again!

[almcl]

Well done!

All sky plate solver isn't for everyone, but when it works it's brilliant.  

You might want to check out the free version of Astro Photography Tool.  Its Pointcraft function can put you on target (it uses APT) in just a few minutes, starting from almost anywhere.