M51 reprocessed and a question...

[ollypenrice]

This is a new reprocess of an image from the Springtime. I have learned quite a bit so it's better than before. (I realize that 950mm is not ideal for M51, but here it is.) I took this with the Meade 127 and I would love to know how much better it would be in a really high end refractor. It is so hard to know for certain. Any ideas?

Olly

[JAO]

Superb, can't comment about potential improvement with a higher end scope I am not an imager, I can say if you look at Mount Wilson and Palomar M51 pics from a few decades ago this massively surpasses those images, with a moderately priced 5" (and clearly some imaging skill), quite amazing!

Thanks for sharing and happy new year

Adrian

[assouptro]

I cannot comment on the use of a high end refractor but we are led to believe them to be better?

Personally I think its a stunning image and a great advert for the equipment you are using now.

Happy new year Olly and thanks for sharing.

Bryan.

[MartinB]

The advantage of paying the extra thousands should be better colour correction and improved contrast. Possibly better resolved stars but this is also going to be influenced by design and chip size.

Looking at your stars, they don't appear to have had a minimum filter applied so assuming they haven't been reduced they look reasonably tight for this focal length. They do have small blue halos but that can be misleading since they can result from higher signal resulting from longer exposures for the blue channel. Otherwise they can indicate a slight error in colour correction or result from internal reflections. Since nearly all your stars are blue I think you might have over exposed the blue channel a little relative to the other 2 or you have pushed the blue harder in the processing.

I think the target has good resolution for the focal length, was this taken with the Atik 16HR? To my eye it is a bit lacking in contrast and the blue is dominating. The brown dust lanes in the main galaxy aren't showing through much at all. I think this is likely to be a processing rather than a scope issue.

One thing I notice with my FSQ and I bet you have found the same with yours is that you don't have to work hard to improve the contrast, it is there in spades.

So overall, it looks to me like that triplet is working very well and any star issues are likely to be down to the blue being a bit heavy in the mix.

Have you ever tried making adjustments to colour contrast in LAB space? If not give it a go. Under mode change from RGB to LAB. Go to channels and select "a" making sure it is the only channel selected then adjustments/ brightness and contrast. Slide up the contrast about +30. Then select all the channels again and see what it does. It is best to create a second version of the image so that you can view the changes you are making at the time. The "a" channel works on reds and greens and the b blues. LAB space is capable of delivering superb improvments to contrast and saturation.

Sorry if you are a regular user of this technique Olly, I know I've probably been telling you how to suck eggs.

[ollypenrice]

Thanks Martin. I have tried some but not all of those LAB techniques. I did push the blue a bit to avoid the galaxy being a nonedescript murky colour.

The Meade, which I very much like, is at its weakest on blue stars, which tend to swell. Bloat would be being too harsh. I think stars in general tend to be a little large but I'm not complaining for the price. It's just that I have the scent of a couple of beasties, a TEC140 and a Tak 130. Plus, oh dear, I have some readies for once.

Olly

PS Tak contrast - I agree. That and colour coming out easily. It is wonderful to behold.

[MartinB]

Go for it Olly. People would travel a good distance to sample those scopes. They are like rare premier cru clarets, the money doesn't make sense but you just want to try them!!

I race a sailing dinghy and sometimes the only justification I have for spending money on kit is that I will have nothing blame other than myself when I don't do very well. With a Tak or a Tec you know you can just forget the scope.

[ollypenrice]

Martin, you are a bad influence! But it's what I want to hear...

Just bought a full carbon road bike last month as well. Going mad in my old age.

Olly

[RichieJarvis]

Looking really nice Olly - great job....

One day I hope to buy a stella scope, and see what results I can get