More progress (M51 in RGB)

[rickwayne]

I suppose this chick will have to leave the nest at some point and post to something other than the "getting started" forum. With all the problems I keep encountering -- not to mention my own ignorance -- I still feel like a beginner, even years into this.

Anyway, here's the latest. I will resist the temptation to recite its litany of shortcomings other than to note that I had a lot of trouble balancing the R, G, and B in the background -- seemed like a lot of B and almost no R. Full tech details on the Astrobin page, but briefly, 6 or 7 five-minute exposures for each channel, Stellarvue SV70t with no flattener/reducer, ASI183MM Pro mono camera, most processing done in Siril with touchup, color balance tweaking, denoise, and sharpening in Photoshop. Whirlpool, ho!

[old_eyes]

That's a very nice image of the galaxy with clear tidal streams. But as you have identified the sky is too blue and there is a fair amount of colour noise.

I would say this is beyond 'getting started', and it would be a good idea to repost in the Image Processing - Help and Techniques forum where you will find many experts who can advise on how to improve the processing to get the best out of your data. They have certainly helped me.

[Seanelly]

Ya, I agree with old_eyes to re-post for some tech advice because certainly it is a pleasant-looking image just looking for some extra love.