kirkster501 Posted March 28, 2022 Share Posted March 28, 2022 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. 33 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powerlord Posted March 28, 2022 Share Posted March 28, 2022 very nice. best I've seen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knobby Posted March 28, 2022 Share Posted March 28, 2022 That's very nice 👍🏻 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin-Devon Posted March 29, 2022 Share Posted March 29, 2022 Superb image - well done! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juno16 Posted March 29, 2022 Share Posted March 29, 2022 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powerlord Posted March 29, 2022 Share Posted March 29, 2022 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: 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kirkster501 Posted March 29, 2022 Author Share Posted March 29, 2022 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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