First attempt at M51

[johnst]

Managed to get a decent image of M 51 from a few nights ago on a really clear night using my Star Adventurer and WO Megrez 72d and a Canon 700d modded using a CLS clip filter. Using 25 x 120 sec lights and 25 x 120 sec darks with 25 flats, 25 dark flats and 40 bias. 

Cheers 

[johnst]

Sorry all, don't know why I've duplicated the image as it was the first attempt at putting an image on. I am pleased with it though!

John 

[wimvb]

Nice catch. Now comes the fun of processing the image. First step: align the histograms. Good luck

[johnst]

Already had a go in Gimp, don't know if I can do any better🤨

[AstroMuni]

On 19/04/2021 at 11:00, johnst said:

Already had a go in Gimp, don't know if I can do any better🤨

Image is good 👍 Check the histogram in Gimp. If you find that the Blue curve is way to the right, you can align it to R & G to get a more realistic colour. The Colour/Levels menu should help. Select only the colour channel that you wish to move and then adjust the sliders at the bottom. Good luck

Edited April 22, 2021 by AstroMuni

[johnst]

Thanks for that, I will give it another go, finding that imaging is really challenging  and still finding my way around Gimp. I have to have a session on visual observing occasionally to bring myself round a bit but that's the fun of astronomy, there's always something new, I am looking forward to the partial eclipse of the sun in June !!

[AstroNebulee]

Great image John. As astromuni says use the colour balance or levels in gimp, though I use photoshop to process its pretty much the same, just look at the histogram as you alter it to get the blue peak in line with the rest of them. I have booked the 10th June off work for the partial eclipse, so hoping I manage to capture the event, clear skies