M51

[kirkster501]

I've not posted any astrophotography for a while so here goes. The Whirlpool Galaxy, M51 in Canes Venatici.

124 x 300s with TEC140 and Atik 460 and Asttrodon 3nm Ha filter and LRGB Gen2. Note the red HII glowing regions. From a data set half acquired in April 2021 and half 26-27 March 2022.  90% of the data is in the L and Ha.

[powerlord]

very nice. best I've seen.

[knobby]

That's very nice 👍🏻

[Martin-Devon]

Superb image - well done!

[juno16]

That is a beautiful image of the Whirlpool!

I really like the coloration and the details are really nice. 
Using mostly the L and Ha was an excellent choice.

[powerlord]

Interesting comparing it to mine a few weeks ago. That 3nm Ha really helps pull out and focus the Ha doesn't it ? I shot Ha too, but just with my ZWO 7nm - you can see it's far more muddy:

 

[kirkster501]

Many thanks for the kind comments.  Yes, it's a nice pic but M51 is particularly photogenic I think.  I am always very careful not to over-denoise my images, I actually prefer a tiny bit of grain in them.  If you over do the denoising it makes the image look very plasticky in my opinion.

Of the over ten and a half hours in this image a full nine hours of that is on the luminance and Ha (both 1x1) - six hours of luminance.  Only about 30 mins each on RGB binned 2x2.  I collected the luminance last April but then we had weeks of clouds by which time M51 was gone from my skies behind the trees.  This year I captured the Ha and the RGB.

I have come to realise that the key to AP is a very strong luminance.  If you have any free time to add something to an image, do more luminance.  Of course most know this anyway but I have to find out the hard way by experimentation and L in 1x1 and RGB 2x2 is absolutely the best, most time efficient way.