Retractor galaxies series: M51 improved.

[ollypenrice]

I recently posted a single-night 7 hour M51. This week, with Peter Goodhew and Richard Miller, I added more L and RGB under better seeing. This now has 19x15 minutes L, 14x10 mins per colour and 3x20 mins Ha. Not having to push the data so hard has allowed a more delicate processing of the core and added some depth to the tidal structures. I used Pixinsight's Photometric Colour Calibration since my regular method was not giving such a convincing result.

TEC140 APO, Atik 460 mono, Baader filters, Mesu 200 roller drive mount. This is almost full size so you should be able to click on it below and open it up here to see how you feel a refractor can do as compared with a bigger reflector. 

Olly

[DaveS]

That is jaw-dropingly good.

Lots of faint-fuzzies in the background too.

[swag72]

That is very nice indeed - The detail is excellent and the colours are very nice. There's nothing over sharpened or over done about this image at all......... Exactly as it should be When people say about gathering more data and it's advantages, for sure it makes processing easier and I'm all for that

[cuivenion]

Stunning!

[Petergoodhew]

I have to say that the experience of working through this, and M101, from start to finish with Olly and Richard was invaluable. The only problem is that I've no excuse now for rubbish processing! 

[tomato]

That’s a beauty. I also love the myriad of small, fainter galaxies coming through.

It’s already been said, but there’s no substitute for good SNR ratio, and lots of integration time.?

[Allinthehead]

Beautifully done Olly.

[Shibby]

Awesome, very strong colour and detail. This may sound silly, but it feels very physically present in your image, rather than the fuzzy spectre that most galaxies are. (yep, that does sound silly).