M51 - a wider view

[ShineOn]

The obvious benefit of running a dual rig setup is that you can image the same target with two different telescope / camera combinations simultaneously. The data for these widefield views of M51 was captured at the same time as the close up image I posted a couple of days ago.

I could have combined the data but I knew I had enough from each setup to simply produce a 2nd, very different image. The galaxy doesn’t have quite the resolution but I prefer the colours in this version and the way M51 appears to float in its surroundings.

The APS-C sized chip of the ZWO camera coupled with the Tak gives a field of view of 3 x 2 degrees, so even the wider view of M51 seen here is still a fair crop.

Simon

Image details:
154 x 5 mins 
With Takahashi FSQ85 @f5.3 / ZWO ASI 2600MC Pro
Total image time: 12h 50mins

Guided with ZWO ASI 224 MC / phd2
Data captured with Sequence Generator Pro
Stacked with DSS
Processed with PS CS5