M51

[Peter Reader]

40 x 4 min lights, 30 flats, 30 dark flats and 30 bias

I think my flats are working quite well to remove vignetting and now I probably need to learn how to process images in a more sophisticated way than simply stetching the histogram and increasing contrast / adjusting colour balance.

Any recommendations very welcome.

I have attached the raw stack if anyone fancies having a go at processing for themselves.

Whirlpool DSS output.TIF

Edited February 26, 2022 by Peter Reader

[Budgie1]

I put your image through PixInsight and you've managed to clip quite a lot of the outer dust from the M51 and the two smaller galaxies have nearly faded into the background. Watch the black end of the histogram when stretching the image and don't get too close to the bottom left of the peak. Likewise, you may need to be a bit more aggressive with the middle pointer on the histogram to bring out more detail. This will lighten the background but you can mask the galaxy and make the background darker.

There was still quite a lot of gradient in the top left & bottom right of the image before it was stretched, but I managed to remove most of that.

You also have a faint satellite trail up the right hand side, which can be removed during stacking. If you're using DSS then set the Lights stacking perimeters to Kappa-Sigma clipping and see if that removes it.

I'm sure others will be able get more out of it but here's what I managed to get:

 

Edited February 26, 2022 by Budgie1

[Laurieast]

Re-writing.

Edited February 26, 2022 by Laurieast

[alan potts]

That's rather lovely Peter, I like it.

Alan