A Bonus M101

[Xiga]

After i got through capturing the dodgy M42 data at the start of the month during the stormy weather, i re-calibrated PHD2 near the celestial equator and it seemed to sort out the guiding issues i'd been having. And with M42 now gone behind the neighbour's house, it seemed a waste not to at least try and take advantage of the clear moonless sky. I noticed that M101 had just cleared our roof, so i quickly through a sequence together in SGP and set about trying to gather what i could in the 17-20 mph winds. 

The guiding was surprisingly good, around 1" (normally it is between 0.6-0.9", but 1" is still well below my imaging scale of 1.54"). The wind was still an issue mind, and when i later inspected the subs i found a few that had odd artefacts around some of the stars. I compared stacks with and without them in APP and i could see no difference, so i included them (APP's Quality algorithm must just place less emphasis on these kinds of subs itself behind the scenes i suspect). 

So this is 26 x 360s (about 2.5 hrs in total) taken with an IDAS-D1 and the usual D5300 + 80ED. The usual Bias and Flats used for stacking in APP, then processed in PS.  Reduced down to 75% to at least try and hide some of the small-scale detail noise! 

I firstly did a quick process (i won't show the result!) using an Auto-DDP'd stretch from APP as the starting point. The result was underwhelming to say the least. So i started again, and did all the stretching myself manually, and the payoff in terms of colour was obvious straight away. I think i'll stick to using DDP stretches for NB only from now on. True-Colour really needs to be carefully stretched to try and preserve the colour as much as possible. 

I wasn't expecting to end up with an image at all really, given the conditions, so i think it turned out alright all things considered. 

I'm still not too used to RGB imaging (i've done more NB) so i'd love to hear what you guys think. 

CS!

 

 

[Demonperformer]

And a very nice bonus it is too. I have still to get this one.

[x6gas]

Lovely.

[ZiHao]

What's your sky's bortle scale? Amazing picture! I am using d5300 as well, haven't tried to image galaxies before. Wonder what's the difference when using idas d1 and without. 

[Xiga]

5 hours ago, Demonperformer said:

And a very nice bonus it is too. I have still to get this one.

Thanks! It's a bit small with just an 80ED, but should look better in a bigger scope.

3 hours ago, x6gas said:

Lovely.

Cheers!

2 hours ago, ZiHao said:

What's your sky's bortle scale? Amazing picture! I am using d5300 as well, haven't tried to image galaxies before. Wonder what's the difference when using idas d1 and without. 

Thanks ZiHao! According to Clear Outside, my skies are Class 4 Bortle Scale. It's a small town (population < 10,000) out in the suburbs. Although the house is in an estate with a couple of hundred other houses, so there are streetlights everywhere, hence the need for the LPF. I chose the IDAS as the LP is not the worst, so I don't need one as strong as, say, the Astronomik equivalent. I did try taking some subs of M42 once a couple of years back, just before I got the IDAS, and from memory I think I could only go about 90s or 120s before the histogram was up to half-way. That was when I realised I needed an LPF to go for longer subs.

I love the small pixels (3.9um) of the D5300. Plus, the lack of an AA filter, means you can get results that are pretty sharp (for a DSLR). I was surprised how much detail I was able to extract from the inner spiral arms near the centre with just an 80ED. I think the small pixels and lack of AA filter plays it's part here.

[Demonperformer]

1 hour ago, Xiga said:

Thanks! It's a bit small with just an 80ED, but should look better in a bigger scope.

I quite like shots that show the object in context - you got its companion as well.

[AKB]

Looks as good as today’s APOD!! ?

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap190315.html

_________________

Edit: ...actually, even better!!!

[Xiga]

6 hours ago, AKB said:

Looks as good as today’s APOD!! ?

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap190315.html

_________________

Edit: ...actually, even better!!!

Thanks for that!

I'm actually pleasantly surprised that my version is not a million miles off of that, lol.

Probably more like 1,000km ?

[tooth_dr]

As I said in the message Ciaran, that's a beauty.

[Xiga]

5 minutes ago, tooth_dr said:

As I said in the message Ciaran, that's a beauty.

Thanks Adam ?

Looking at it again, I wonder should I have stretched the stars a bit more? In processing this one, I came to realise that I've been over-stretching the stars in most of my images to date. So I deliberately backed off a fair bit on this one.

So now i'm not sure if they are ok, or could do with a bit 'more'? ?

[Philter]

It's brilliant! It's nice to see what a D5300 and the 80ED can do since I'm just starting out using the same equipment (although my D5300 is unmodded).

I'm a long way off getting anything near this quality. ?

[tooth_dr]

25 minutes ago, Philter said:

It's brilliant! It's nice to see what a D5300 and the 80ED can do since I'm just starting out using the same equipment (although my D5300 is unmodded).

I'm a long way off getting anything near this quality. ?

Ciaran IMO sets the benchmark for what can be done with a DSLR, and is certainly one of the best DSLRs imagers on the forum.

[Barry-Wilson]

Lovely and rich Ciaran.

[Xiga]

1 hour ago, Philter said:

It's brilliant! It's nice to see what a D5300 and the 80ED can do since I'm just starting out using the same equipment (although my D5300 is unmodded).

I'm a long way off getting anything near this quality. ?

Thanks Phil. Good luck with your imaging, the D5300 and 80ED make for a nice combo. If you need to get the camera modified, i highly  recommend JTW Astronomy. 

21 minutes ago, Barry-Wilson said:

Lovely and rich Ciaran.

Thanks Barry! ?

[Philter]

2 hours ago, Xiga said:

Thanks Phil. Good luck with your imaging, the D5300 and 80ED make for a nice combo. If you need to get the camera modified, i highly  recommend JTW Astronomy. 

I've got a HEQ5 Pro on the way as well as it was clear that my current CG5 with goto upgrade isn't going to cut it. Hopefully it'll help make things go more smoothly!

I hadn't really thought about modding the camera but the images in your Flickr gallery have made me think it might be something to consider when I've got a a bit more experience.

[Allinthehead]

Nice to see this in context for a change and it really isn't that far off the Apod image.

[Xiga]

2 hours ago, Allinthehead said:

Nice to see this in context for a change and it really isn't that far off the Apod image.

Thanks Richard ?

2 hours ago, Philter said:

I've got a HEQ5 Pro on the way as well as it was clear that my current CG5 with goto upgrade isn't going to cut it. Hopefully it'll help make things go more smoothly!

I hadn't really thought about modding the camera but the images in your Flickr gallery have made me think it might be something to consider when I've got a a bit more experience.

The HEQ5-Pro is a great mount. I'm more than happy with mine, and regularly shoot 1200s subs, so I'm sure it will serve you well. I've also done the Rowan belt mod, but that's a project for much later down the road. 

If you're interested in shooting emission nebulae, then the modification will be essential. But you can start out on other targets (galaxies, globulars, reflection nebulae, open clusters) to begin with. 

[Philter]

14 hours ago, Xiga said:

The HEQ5-Pro is a great mount. I'm more than happy with mine, and regularly shoot 1200s subs, so I'm sure it will serve you well. I've also done the Rowan belt mod, but that's a project for much later down the road. 

If you're interested in shooting emission nebulae, then the modification will be essential. But you can start out on other targets (galaxies, globulars, reflection nebulae, open clusters) to begin with. 

I've actually ordered it with the belt mod already installed from FLO. I've heard lots of positive things about it so I thought I'd start off with it. I'd probably manage to mess up the installation anyway! ?

The light pollution where I live is bad (Bortle 7) so I'll stick with the bright and relatively easy targets for now. I also picked up an IDAS D2 filter recently, I know it's not a substitute for dark skies but I'm hoping it'll help a bit.

[Marmo720]

This is a great image. One of my favorite galaxies growing up. Something to work up to for my imaging plans

[Xiga]

On 16/03/2019 at 14:30, Philter said:

I've actually ordered it with the belt mod already installed from FLO. I've heard lots of positive things about it so I thought I'd start off with it. I'd probably manage to mess up the installation anyway! ?

The light pollution where I live is bad (Bortle 7) so I'll stick with the bright and relatively easy targets for now. I also picked up an IDAS D2 filter recently, I know it's not a substitute for dark skies but I'm hoping it'll help a bit.

Good choice ordering it with the belt mod pre-installed! If the option had been there when i bought mine some 5 years ago now, i would have done the same myself. The IDAS should allow you to get your feet wet with the brighter objects, but don't forget you are going to need a good software solution for gradient reduction (GradientxTerminator, AstroPixelProcessor, etc). Having to deal with high levels of LP, be prepared for the urge to modify the camera and get an Ha filter to bite sooner than you might think.

13 hours ago, Marmo720 said:

This is a great image. One of my favorite galaxies growing up. Something to work up to for my imaging plans

Thanks Marmo720! ? 

[Philter]

On 20/03/2019 at 00:44, Xiga said:

Good choice ordering it with the belt mod pre-installed! If the option had been there when i bought mine some 5 years ago now, i would have done the same myself. The IDAS should allow you to get your feet wet with the brighter objects, but don't forget you are going to need a good software solution for gradient reduction (GradientxTerminator, AstroPixelProcessor, etc). Having to deal with high levels of LP, be prepared for the urge to modify the camera and get an Ha filter to bite sooner than you might think.

The mount has arrived arrived! I haven't had a chance to use it yet but it feels a lot more substantial than the CG-5 which is a good thing. 

I've already got APP and I've had a little play around with what little data I managed to get with the old mount. I'm looking forward to hopefully being able to take longer exposures and more of them so I'll be looking at guiding sooner rather later.

I'll have to have a look at what's involved with Ha imaging with a DSLR. Do you mind me asking how much it cost to have your camera modded?

[Xiga]

From memory, I think it came to around £175 after factoring in postage (both ways) and currency conversion from € to £. The exchange rate is obviously worse now, so it might be a bit more for you.

[PembrokeSteve]

Superb Image - Cant wait to have a go at it with my Orion ED80!

[kirkster501]

That's a really nice picture.  These widefield pictures really set the context and majesty of the subject I think.

[Xiga]

14 hours ago, PembrokeSteve said:

Superb Image - Cant wait to have a go at it with my Orion ED80!

Cheers! An 80ED is a great scope, loads of things up there to shoot ?

3 hours ago, kirkster501 said:

That's a really nice picture.  These widefield pictures really set the context and majesty of the subject I think.

Cheers! I know what you mean, I'm often tempted to crop in on smaller objects, but end up preferring the widefield version more.