Messier 51, Whirlpool Galaxy, 150PDS and 100d.

[StargeezerTim]

Another clear night last night and I got 38 X 4.5 min, iso 400, subs, plus flats and bias. No filters. DSS and PS. I wasn't expecting too much from such a limited run but was pleasantly surprised when I came to process the image. A bit noisy but the colours came out nicely. Comments and suggestions welcome.

Here is the widefield:- 

And here is a crop:-

[happy-kat]

It's one of those objects that just doesn't look real in the way it's shaped and coloured. Isn't space amazing.

[StargeezerTim]

29 minutes ago, happy-kat said:

It's one of those objects that just doesn't look real in the way it's shaped and coloured. Isn't space amazing.

It is! If you look closely at the widefield there are so many other very faint fuzzies. Messier 51 is over 23 million light years away. I wonder how long it has taken the light from those really faint ones to reach my camera!

[Dragon_Astro]

I never get tired of seeing M51, it's one of my faves.

its a great capture, for the short run and with a dslr. Do you find bias frames really help the end result?

[StargeezerTim]

24 minutes ago, Dragon_Astro said:

I never get tired of seeing M51, it's one of my faves.

its a great capture, for the short run and with a dslr. Do you find bias frames really help the end result?

I'm not sure! Flats definitely help. I don't use darks as I dither. I use bias because they are easy to create and store. I have filed bias for various iso's so it is simple to add

 I occasionally leave them out if I have stacking problems and havn't noticed a major difference in result.