Whirlpool Galaxy Tonight (WARNING BIG FILE)

[Coco]

I got the astrotrac out tonight and tried not to get to excited.The last time went wrong with exposures.

This image was taken in the vicinity of Alkaid . I was trying to image the whirlpool galaxy or there a bouts.

This image was taken with 5 exposures and 5 darks @ 30secs using a 40D & 135/2 L lens @ f2.5

I think I can just make out the galaxy in the top right hand corner.

Any thoughts about how to improve my image would be appreciated.

[barkis]

Hi Coco,

I am on a different computer so I dont have CS3 to work on the image, but I reduced the size a bit to bring in M51 which you have imaged. It is top right, easy to make out, but obviosly small.

Click on the image to increase the size, and you will see M51 top right.

Ron.

[barkis]

Coco, ccould you either reduce the size of the image in the thread, it is much too big, and causing a problem with seeing the thread in it's entirety.

Ron.

[roundycat]

far and away the best thing to do would be to post images at a max size of 1024 x 768 pixels. The one above is bigger than my shed.

Dennis

[RichieJarvis]

Another suggestion is to join the Astrometry group on Flickr - If you upload your photo there, the Astrometry server will identify anything it can find in the image - see this example - I only uploaded that image about 30 minutes ago, and its been tagged already!

Tis a pretty good feature

Cheers,

Richie

[Coco]

I wanted to know how to get a less orange colour yet capture as many stars?

[Coco]

I wanted to know how to get a less orange colour yet capture as many stars?

You cannot see the galaxy in a small picture?

[Cloudwatcher]

If it's a quick fix your after then isolate M51 as a layer on it's own and then darken the background & brighten the new layer. Not an ideal solution but at least the "orange glow" is reduced without the loss of too many stars.

[Cloudwatcher]

Oophs... forgot attachment!

[Psychobilly]

The 40D will take an Astronomik Clip in CLS filter it won't fit your other camera though... but would help a lot.... i'd pay the extra and get the CLS-CCD incase you get the 40D moded sometime in the future.

http://www.modernastronomy.com/filtersAstronomik.htm

Billy...

[David Galvin]

I wanted to know how to get a less orange colour yet capture as many stars?

Coco, have you looked at the following website Catching the Light by Jerry Lodriguss. http://www.astropix.com/HTML/J_DIGIT/DIGTECHS.HTM

It has lots of handy info such as making the background a neutral tone.

I have used Adobe Photoshop to balance the background without, I hope, losing any stars whilst removing the orange colour.

[Sam]

A false flat in PixInsight would do quite a bit to improve the image I think.

[Psychobilly]

as would gradientexterminator but pixinsight LE is free

[David Galvin]

A false flat in PixInsight would do quite a bit to improve the image I think.

as would gradientexterminator but pixinsight LE is free

Gentlemen, please show us how it is done. This learning curve is mighty steep.

[Cloudwatcher]

Don't know if this will be of any help but this image includes the history of what was done.............. the Auto Levels was applied to the M51 layer only prior to merging by flattening the image.

Click to enlarge.

[Tim]

Coco, a decent LP filter will go a LONG way to making your images more contrasty and daker skied, but they wont solve everything.

When you take the image, dont let the histogram move too far to the right, no more than a third over for the peak.

To rescue other images, try Pixinsight as has been mentioned. Get the free LE version. This will also sort out that bit of vignetting you have and enable you to stretch the image a little bit further. The instructions are easy, but if you get stuck, PM me.

TJ

[Coco]

Awesome advise everyone..Have ordered the clip filter.

Cheers

Guy

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

You could check this out if you have Photoshop Coco.

http://stargazerslounge.com/showthread.php?t=59157

Kaptain Klevtsov

[David_Evans]

Hi Coco

I've had a go at processing a small portion of your original image with Photoshop. I haven't attached an image to a post before so I hope this works >>>

Dave