Not the best M51

[gonzostar]

Hi 

This is my  attempt with off M51. Started this project in January how ever so much cloud!

Defiantly not the best image. Did struggle with the flat frames. I must bite the bullet and give the lens a clean. 

Telescope used: ES102mm APO AT f7 on a AVX mount

Camera  used: ZWO 385MC camera in  bottle 5 skies. 

Settings used , 

Gain 135 

Exposure 120s

Integration time around  30 hours 

Darks and flats used, Finished in PS.

Of course pointers for improvement welcome

 

Cheers

Dean 

Also attached is the tiff file if you fancy a challenge  😁

30hrs-16bitE120G135.tif

[AKB]

Nice shot, given the challenges.

I'm no expert, but here's my two-pence worth...

Tony

 

[Clarkey]

I have had a very quick play and got the image below. There is certainly some good detail in there, but the background gradients need some work to remove.

[gonzostar]

1 hour ago, AKB said:

Nice shot, given the challenges.

I'm no expert, but here's my two-pence worth...

Tony

 

Thankyou for your effort. Liking the background and more detail then i managed 👍

[gonzostar]

43 minutes ago, Clarkey said:

I have had a very quick play and got the image below. There is certainly some good detail in there, but the background gradients need some work to remove.

Thankyou Clarkey   Liking the more detail then i managed. Did you pull out   some more smaller fuzzies? Or are they just scratches on the lens? Also did  you PS or other software?

 

Cheers 

Dean

[gonzostar]

Hope this image is better had another go with gradient exterminator using Clarkey image. So much detail

Thankyou

 

[Clarkey]

The image above, although cleaner looking, is heavily black clipped so you loose quite a bit of the faint detail. Don't overdo the black background.

I use PixInsight now. As I said there is quite a bit of detail in your image, the trick is learning how to extract it without pushing the data too far. I consider myself a vaguely competent imager now - and this is after 4 years. I am still learning. Getting the images is the easy bit (weather permitting) once you have a basic routine. The processing is way harder. As I said, this was a very quick bash at your data, and I think with better pre-processing there is a decent image in there. I'm not sure why the background is so patchy - something you will need to look into.

You are definitely on the right track. Keep it up👍

Edited April 11 by Clarkey

[gonzostar]

Will look into patchy background. Bit the bullet and cleaned the lens for the first time. I've had this  Scope for  years now. Hope the new flats help with this issue. People seem to be getting sharper images using pixlnsight compared to PS

[WolfieGlos]

15 hours ago, gonzostar said:

People seem to be getting sharper images using pixlnsight compared to PS

I’d agree with this, I’ve just got the 45day trial for PI and whilst it’s similar to Siril with its tools (but more of them, and easier to control… I feel), it’s the XT tools that really do it. Which you can also get on a trial, for 30 days, and I think some are available for PS.

Honestly, the image I posted this week of M106 I have tried several times using my usual processing workflow in Siril, Gimp, Starnet and Topaz, and despite 2 years of use, I cannot get anywhere near the result of PI (coupled with Noise and Blur XT). And I did that in PI with fewer processing steps than usual, and on my first real attempt at using it. I was utterly blown away sat at the screen watching this image unfold.

Ultimately I’d suggest it’s down to the AI trickery for sharpness and lack of noise, and I would never suggest capturing less data, but the fact I have a presentable image with only 3.5 hours of data is unheard of for my system at f/5.6 - it’s usually too noisy, but it has possibly been helped by it being a fairly bright target. If we were to have permacloud for the rest of the year, I’d be happy to leave that image alone, but alas, I plan to add more data when I can.

[alacant]

On 11/04/2024 at 21:04, gonzostar said:

pointers for improvement

Hi

Well done. There's some nice detail.
Maybe have a look at the individual frames and remove any with clouds. Then stack again. Be ruthless!

Keep it simple. Go gently with the processing. Be careful not to delete faint stuff. It needn't take hours sat in front of a screen. A quick go with the latest ST:

 

Edited April 13 by alacant

[gonzostar]

Thankyou Chris and alacant

Re-process with top 50% according to DSS. Tried not to back clip, Streaks still there bit can see some faint fuzzies this time. Will do more research into using PI

Cheers 

Dean

[Horwig]

Hope you don't mind me having a go as well

[gonzostar]

Thats Brill. Thankyou for your effort with this challenge. Which magic wand did you use? 

 

Dean 

[Horwig]

35 minutes ago, gonzostar said:

Which magic wand did you use? 

 

Dean 

just the usual, Pi and PS, with a good dose of Mr Croman's magic dust

Huw

[Mal22]

21 minutes ago, Horwig said:

just the usual, Pi and PS, with a good dose of Mr Croman's magic dust

Huw

Great job! Which PI tools do you use for the colour details? I’m currently processing my own M51 data but can’t get a result I’m happy with. Thanks 

[Horwig]

7 minutes ago, Mal22 said:

Great job! Which PI tools do you use for the colour details? I’m currently processing my own M51 data but can’t get a result I’m happy with. Thanks 

Thanks, actually, the colour saturation was done in Photoshop. using the hue/saturation tool