Messier 51

[wimvb]

Since astro darkness is all but gone up here, the moon is gaining, and clouds are obscuring it all, I have started to reprocess data from a few years back. Inspired by deep images posted here and in the deep field challenge, I've reworked my 2022 version of M51.

This is 15 hours of data, captured at f/5.3 with my SkyWatcher MN190 and ASI294MM camera.

Reprocessed, as always, in PixInsight. For H-alpha and red combination, I tried something new. I created an HaRR image with channel combination in PI, and colour calibrated that with the standard colour calibration process. Then I merged the red channel of this image with an RGB image. It took a bit of tweaking, but the result looks pleasing.

The original version, which was all about the Ha regions in this galaxy, is here:

 

[geeklee]

On 20/04/2024 at 11:50, wimvb said:

For H-alpha and red combination, I tried something new. I created an HaRR image with channel combination in PI, and colour calibrated that with the standard colour calibration process. Then I merged the red channel of this image with an RGB image. It took a bit of tweaking, but the result looks pleasing.

That's a great revision Wim - the Ha less prominent, but overall a step up in many areas.

Interesting approach for Ha combination you've listed above, I will try and keep a note of this to try myself - thanks for sharing.

My continuum subtraction attempts have been mixed - my latest one I ended up masking in the final step to help in the places I wanted it.  A little unorthodox.

[wimvb]

59 minutes ago, geeklee said:

Interesting approach for Ha combination you've listed above, I will try and keep a note of this to try myself - thanks for sharing.

Thank you, Lee. I got the idea from Seti Astro on youtube. I didn't remember the exact steps, so I "winged it". Normally I would emphasize the H-alpha regions a bit more, but this time I went for subtle.