M51 in a field of galaxies...

[AMcD]

This is my LHaRGB image of M51 and of the field of galaxies that surrounds it (detailed in the annotated version below).  The data was acquired during astronomical twilight over the course of a number of nights in late May and early June, there now being no astronomical darkness overnight at my location currently, according to the APT app.  The total of 16 hours and 30 minutes of integrations comprises 8 hours 30 minutes of luminance, 3 hours 30 minutes of H-alpha and 1 hour 30 minutes each of red, green and blue.  The data was acquired under Bortle 5 skies using a QHY268M and Antlia Pro LHaRGB filters with my TS 130 Photoline Triplet APO mounted on a Losmandy G11 using SGPro.  It was processed using Graxpert and PixInsight.   I am not certain why the elliptical galaxy NGC5173 in the bottom right has turned out so red, but I suspect an error in my processing.

Crop:

Widefield view:

Annotated version:

Edited June 11, 2023 by AMcD
Added cropped version.

[Stu Wilson]

very impressive that.

[windjammer]

Lovely.  Great actually!

If I may ask, what did you use to produce the annotated pic ?  Very handy.

Simon

 

[Sunshine]

It's a wonderful wide field of fuzzies!

[AMcD]

On 25/06/2023 at 15:45, Stu Wilson said:

very impressive that.

Many thanks. 

[AMcD]

22 hours ago, windjammer said:

Lovely.  Great actually!

If I may ask, what did you use to produce the annotated pic ?  Very handy.

Simon

 

Thanks Simon.  I used PixInsight to annotate the image.  You plate solve the picture in PixInsight using the 'Image Solver' script and then use the 'Annotate Image' script in order to apply the labels.  A good guide to the process can be founder here: Pixinsight Image Annotation — TheAstroGazer

[AMcD]

22 hours ago, Sunshine said:

It's a wonderful wide field of fuzzies!

Many thanks @Sunshine🙂

[windjammer]

6 hours ago, AMcD said:

Thanks Simon.  I used PixInsight to annotate the image.  You plate solve the picture in PixInsight using the 'Image Solver' script and then use the 'Annotate Image' script in order to apply the labels.  A good guide to the process can be founder here: Pixinsight Image Annotation — TheAstroGazer

 

Just tried this out - what great fun!  Thanks for the info

[windjammer]

Cosmic traffic jam!

 

 

[AMcD]

21 hours ago, windjammer said:

Cosmic traffic jam!

 

 

Looks great.  Lovely image.

[Mr Spock]

It's a lovely view 👍

[AMcD]

On 27/06/2023 at 23:56, Mr Spock said:

It's a lovely view 👍

Thank you @Mr Spock. Your post initially made me laugh as the bug affecting the SGL website transition had put a question mark after your comment.  For a moment it suggested you are a man with even higher standards when it comes to views of the Heavens than I had thought 🙂

Edited July 3, 2023 by AMcD