M51

[planetdnb]

Hi All,

First image posting on here. I would like to see how my processing compares to some of you more experienced guys so I would be grateful of any seasoned pro to have a go with my unprocessed stack which can be downloaded here http://www.astro-photos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/m51.tif

[Jannis]

I have to admit i'm not good at all with photoshop, so i'm sure you can count on someone else dropping by giving you a Much better result then what i came up with at least.

In fact, i think the one you had there is already quite clear, and better then what i came up with, just a bit dark, and the colour balance seems to be quite wrong. It's way too red.

I tried to adjust it a bit, but not with too much success (as mine became too blue/green-ish).

Eitehr way, here's my attempt..

How did you take this picture, btw?

[planetdnb]

thats not bad. i see what you mean now about too much red. I can see some of the blue detail coming out of the arms which is what i was hoping for!

its 18 x 5min subs on modified 350d (old and noisy!)

40 flats and a bad pixel map removal as darks don't work on this camera : (

[planetdnb]

here's another attempt

[dlp]

I had a 'quick' go in PI (you could spend hours on this!). Guess there were no darks/bias/flats for this? (very noisy)

David

[Cloudwatcher]

Downloaded TIFF file........ looks to have a sever case of 'tomato soup syndrome' that we all know and hate.

Application of Auto Colour turned it to a not unpleasant green and more detail was showing through.

Anyhow,below is the result of my tinkering in CS3 ............ have included the cropped version. Speaking of cropping I think dip has got it about right...... a nicely framed image.

[planetdnb]

wow thanks guys.

Cloudwatcher, how did you manage to get some colour out of the stars?

[planetdnb]

i had another go!

It's really helpful to see what other people can do with the same data. It's a great way to gauge your processing skills!

Thanks guys

[carastro]

Had a go with Levels, curves, noise and gradient reduction.

Carole

[kookoo_gr]

here's mine processed with DSS and PS CS3. since there is trail i resized down the image. also there is a lot of noise from bad/no dark frames. also there seems to be heavy light pollution at the right of the image