M51

[johnyb (John)]

Its been cloudy almost every day for a couple of months, or the moon is up to wreck the rest.
So i thought i would try Itelescope with a scope in Nerpio spain.

Using a Planewave 17" F6.8 astrograph, with SBIG STL 11000M CCD i had enough points to take:
7x 120s each of R, B, G Binx2 and 31x 120s Lum Bin 1

I used their calibrated Fits files stacked in DSS, aligned in Registar and processed in PS.

Being a newby at this, i am quickly finding out how hard it is to process the final images. Spent several hours to get the attached image.

I am excited in that i managed to get a scope half way across the world to automatically find track and shoot a galaxy in the northern hemisphere.

But the quality of the raw images i would not day i was entirely happy with.

Nevertheless i thought i would share this with you. Happy to recieve comments or advice.

Cheers

John

[johnyb (John)]

Hi,
I learnt how to remove the gradients by doing a subtraction. Final pic looks a lot better.
I guess the art is really being able to know the post processing software and using all of the features.

For a newby, i am happy with the result. Now i just want clear skies to take more pics.

[mynameiscd (Andy)]

Hi John
I know what you mean by cloudy. I've been working near Edenhope Vic for a couple of months now and miss the clear nights at Hardwicke bay.
I've also been playing around with itelescope and have a fair bit of data but I'm still struggling with processing.
I'm not sure if I should be using the calibrated fits with darks or not.
Have you found a good tutorial yet.
By the way
Really good shot
Cheers
Andy

[johnyb (John)]

Hi Andy,

I used calibrated fits but i was not happy with the quality. I am no expert but they are very noisy and have many hot pixels which were not removed during calibration.

I also downloaded the un calibrated fits so i will also play around at stacking those using master darks and flats. if that fails then i will try stacking their darks and flats separately.

I have a friend who has been doing this for several years, he is also having a go at processing the data.

I did also get refund of points for some of the data as one would expect high quality data from those expensive scopes we are using.

cheers

[mynameiscd (Andy)]

Hi John
I have also downloaded​ the calibrated files etc.
I've had a bit of a play with the color scopes and got a few alright pics but I still need more data.
It's the playing around with all the filters which is a pretty steep learning curve like blending hydrogen Alfa with the red channel and how long to image using different filters. I'm sure each filter needs different exposure times.
Good fun playing with thousands of dollars worth of equipment and not having to sell my house to do so.
I've Just got basic lpi imaging so it's a try before I buy.
Still not to sure which rabbit hole to go down, CCD or DSLR but in the meantime I can virtually play around with the real thing.
Cheers
Andy

[johnyb (John)]

Good luck Andy,

I started about a year ago when a friend who i worked with was really into it in a big way got me hooked.

A steep learning curve and much advice from him, google searches and now several thousand dollars later, i am loving the journey.

Much to learn and much gained from Iceinspace forum. the members are always willing to give you advice.



Cheers

John