Well -FINALLY- M51

[JonCarleton]

Good, clear nights have been at a premium the last month, but I have managed a few sessions and decided to try M51, as it is listed as "EASY" in most of the HOWTO's and videos about the night sky.  For the last month or so, I have tried and failed more times than I care to mention.  Granted, most of the nights there was a high level mist layer that made only bright stars visible with the naked eye, but I figured  I could manage if I kept at it.  I failed a LOT.

For a while I doubted the ability of the GOTO scope to get close enough for me to identify the target.  I even spent one night with an angle finder and compass trying to verify the Alt/Az numbers on the reflector tube (a method that has served me well for objects that actually ARE easy).  Eventually, I did a 1 star alignment on Alioth (the nearest star presented as a default option for alignment in SynScanPro) and then did a GOTO to the object.  This time, it worked, though like most deep sky objects I have managed, it was not very obvious.

One hundred ten-second subs later, I had something to work with.  Here is my initial result.  I still have work to do with the image.  I didn't even apply darks to this one yet, it has a lot of noise and I seem to have lost a bit of focus in the stacking (Siril) compared to some of the single images.

Processing suggestions gratefully accepted.

[JonCarleton]

OK..second processing attempt.   Darks added and some more time in GIMP.  Still pretty noisey.

 

Edited April 17, 2020 by JonCarleton

[JonCarleton]

[laser_jock99]

Sharper- but colour balance looks a bit on the green/yellow side to me?

[JonCarleton]

1 hour ago, laser_jock99 said:

Sharper- but colour balance looks a bit on the green/yellow side to me?

Yes, I had trouble with that.  The stacked image was heavy green/yellow.  I almost thought it was only the green channel when I first saw it.  I did a LOT of work in GIMP to try to reduce the "shamrock effect." Not sure why yet.  It may be that I had the levels a bit out of whack on the imaging software (AstroDMx_Capture) when the subs were imaged.  Looking at a fuzzy blob and deciding that the color balance is OK is difficult.  I need to take another look at the subs and see if it was imaging or processing.

[JonCarleton]

The green hue is apparently in the original image capture.  Very strong green.  I must have had the color balance way off.  AstroDMx_Capture has a "One Button White Balance" that I may have pushed, even though I haven't really ever been pleased with the result after I pushed it. 

Or, the red lights may have altered my ability to judge color properly.

Or, I was so glad I actually had M51 in the FOV that I didn't take time to properly adjust things.

Or, I'm just a putz!

[rickwayne]

Plate solving gives you godlike powers. I weep when I think of all the cumulative hours I spent raging because I couldn't get the target in view after an hour of trying.

And I blush when it stops working for some reason and I discover that instead of a sophisticated astronomer, I'm really just a newb with a lot of expensive toys. 🙂

[rickwayne]

WRT the color balance, how are you analyzing the images as they come off the camera? I assume you're using a one-shot color camera of some sort; what do your histograms look like, and what file format are you recording to?

[JonCarleton]

5 hours ago, rickwayne said:

WRT the color balance, how are you analyzing the images as they come off the camera? I assume you're using a one-shot color camera of some sort; what do your histograms look like, and what file format are you recording to?

I analyzed the images that came off the camera by looking at one and saying, "Dang!  That really looks green."  Post the post-processing, of course.

The camera is a SVBony 305 (2M CMOS in 24 bit RGB mode).  

I can write many formats, but typically use TIFs or direct to FITs.  In this instance, TIFs.

The histograms that were created by the capture program were deleted by the operator

It is pretty certain that IF I had taken the time to look at the image before mashing the "capture 100 images" button, I might have noticed how abnormally green it was.  As it seems certain you can appreciate, I was so overjoyed at looking at the correct object, my other alleged skills took a backseat.