M51 HaLRGB

[Rodd]

I added 36 5min Ha subs (about 3 hours) collected with the TOA and ASI 1600, to the LRGB image collected with the C11edge and the STT-8300. The pixel scales were not that far off and I figured it was just Ha, so a little blurriness would be overlooked.   Its strange, but the LRGB image (the image on my profile) almost looks more like an HaLRGB image than this one, and this one has the Ha.  Not sure its an improvement, but it is more than just a reprocess--its a new image.  Therefore, I felt reposting was appropriate.  Its too red in places I know.  It does seem a tad blurry now that I look carefully, which is strange since I registered the C11 dat to the TOA data, which tended to shrink the X11 image--which should have helped sharpness.  Also the image uploaded quite large--too large for my taste.  Oh well.  Allot of moving parts I guess.  There is one improvement.....the stars are better.

 

 

[Sunshine]

That is something to see! must be a rewarding feeling to get a final image like that!

[Rodd]

8 minutes ago, Sunshine said:

That is something to see! must be a rewarding feeling to get a final image like that!

Thanks Sunshine.

Rodd

[MarsG76]

Looks great on my monitor, neither blurry or too red any where.. 

[MikeODay]

Wonderful image Rodd.  Well done!

[groberts]

That's a really great image Rodd one of the best M51s I've seen - like the depth within the spiral itself. 

Graham 

[Ronclarke]

Great image, worthy of a poster proclaiming astronomy!! 

Ron

[Rodd]

5 hours ago, MarsG76 said:

Looks great on my monitor, neither blurry or too red any where.. 

Thanks Mars.  

Rodd

[Rodd]

3 hours ago, MikeODay said:

Wonderful image Rodd.  Well done!

Thanks Mike.  I  still think I prefer the LRGB version.

Rodd

[Rodd]

3 hours ago, groberts said:

That's a really great image Rodd one of the best M51s I've seen - like the depth within the spiral itself. 

Graham 

Thanks Graham.  M51 is bright.  If one is not careful all that signal  can make it look flat.  I find this galaxy needs allot of disc reduction to enhance contrast.

Rodd

[Rodd]

3 hours ago, Ronclarke said:

Great image, worthy of a poster proclaiming astronomy!! 

Ron

Thanks Ron.  

Rodd

[ollypenrice]

22 hours ago, Rodd said:

Thanks Graham.  M51 is bright.  If one is not careful all that signal  can make it look flat.  I find this galaxy needs allot of disc reduction to enhance contrast.

Rodd

Yup, you've really gone for spiral structure in this processing and why not? The very strong, dark reds of the Ha have emphasized this still further. For me they are a bit over-played but, on the other hand, this gives a fresh perspective on the galaxy.

In my recent M51 the flatness/spiral contrast dilmemma dominated my thinking throughout the job. This time I jumped the other way to you. I suspect Lord Rosse would prefer yours!

Olly

[Rodd]

2 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

For me they are a bit over-played

I couldn't agree more.  Of all the images I have reprocessed again and again, this one is the one that I find the most difficult to render anywhere close to my best effort (the image to the left--under my name).  That one has no Ha, but it looks like it does because those red regions are overplayed as well--but overplayed to mimic Ha regions!  So even if I do manage to get the Ha right--it will look like the original, even though it will be "more correct".  Not sure its worth it (considering the difficulty I have with this data).   Just for reference--here is that image (well, not exactly--its copied from my Astrobin page as I am having trouble identifying the proper version on my hard drive!)-so there may be some JPEG compression if zoomed (so don't zoom!).