M51 and M33

[Stu Wilson]

These 2 images are from data gathered tonight on both galaxies.

M51 is 20 6 min subs

M33 is 10 6 min subs.

Both are taken with QHY8l cooled to -25 degrees and stacked in DSS with Darks Flats Bias etc from my library for reusing as and when.

Both images are processed in Photoshop after hours of cross eyed watching tutorials lol

Although its nowhere near what I want to achieve I think im slowly starting to learn something (even if its cock things up lol)

However have a look and please comment.

PS I know there is a bit of noise in there but I seem to be adding that to the images in photoshop as I haven't sussed out all these masks/star masks and removing unwanted things etc.

And I know I need a lot more subs of any images to obtain very good results however were slowly getting a result and having fun and tears doing/learning it.

Also that moon and a few clouds didn't help tonight.

Cheers

 

Clear Skies

 

Stu ?

 

[geordie85]

Great start especially for the sky quality tonight. Maybe bring then background brightness down on m51 to the same level as your m33 image. 

More data is always good too

[Stu Wilson]

I'll try that later ?

 

[8472]

What fl are you imaging your M51 shot with? Did you crop at all?

[Stu Wilson]

3 hours ago, 8472 said:

What fl are you imaging your M51 shot with? Did you crop at all?

The only crop I made was around the borders where DSS had left it's mark.

Fl 1000mm

Skywatcher 200P 

[AKB]

These look pretty good to me, especially with moon and clouds.

M33 is a really difficult target to make look nice, IMHO.  I did, however, take a close look at the edges and I assume you're using some sort of coma corrector (?) because it looks like the spacing is just a smidge too close

 

Spacing too close:

 

For M51, which looks great, getting rid of the green and doing a bit of noise reduction gave this:

 

Hope you don't mind me playing with your data.  I 'm only a beginner and use a QHY8L too, so am always keen to try things out. 

 

[Stu Wilson]

35 minutes ago, AKB said:

These look pretty good to me, especially with moon and clouds.

M33 is a really difficult target to make look nice, IMHO.  I did, however, take a close look at the edges and I assume you're using some sort of coma corrector (?) because it looks like the spacing is just a smidge too close

 

Spacing too close:

 

For M51, which looks great, getting rid of the green and doing a bit of noise reduction gave this:

 

Hope you don't mind me playing with your data.  I 'm only a beginner and use a QHY8L too, so am always keen to try things out. 

 

Not using a CC and yeah feel free to try out.

What method did you use for noise reduction?

[AKB]

1 hour ago, Stu Wilson said:

Not using a CC

Ah, so what this shows then, is the lack of a coma corrector!

1 hour ago, Stu Wilson said:

What method did you use for noise reduction?

I'm using PixInsight for processing and used the TGVDenoise process.  Also a bit of a lift to the low-end intensity curve a la Olly Penrice (I call this ONR - Olly noise reduction.)

[alacant]

Lovely images.

24 minutes ago, AKB said:

lack of a coma corrector!

I find the cc introduces more aberration and refractor-like stars. Probably best without as the coma is easily corrected by modern software:

HTH

[AKB]

4 minutes ago, alacant said:

coma is easily corrected by modern software:

Nice.  How?

[alacant]

1 hour ago, AKB said:

How?

I used the -rather elegant- StarTools lens module. Much better than the mask-and-hope-for-the-best approaches. HTH.

**Also the only way I've found to correct the tri-colour stars from my mate's mono camera.