M51 Whirlpool Galaxy in LRGB

Bassnut (Fred) · #1 09-06-2008, 03:07 PM

Hi Guys

M51 Whirlpool Galaxy LRGB 50:25:25:25 mins L bin1 RGB bin2, all 5 min sub exposures.

Taken on GRAS G5. Tak Epsilon 250 10" OTA at f3.4, PME and ST10XME (cropped).

http://fredsastro.googlepages.com/home

A striking Galaxy that is very photogenic, a pleasure to image.

AlexN · #2 09-06-2008, 04:45 PM

Nice! those GRAS remote scopes are great for adding more targets to your picture gallery...

A quick question.. At what (if any) time of the year is M51 an achievable target for austrailian astrophotographers?

Alchemy (Clive) · #3 09-06-2008, 04:49 PM

very nice fred, had a squiz at your other images there (love the M8 Ha), couple nice helix's plus a bunch of other goodies . Big thumbs up

Garyh · #4 09-06-2008, 05:02 PM

Beaut colors Fred!
A lovely GRAS image!

Karlsson · #5 09-06-2008, 05:07 PM

One of the best M51 images I have seen...!

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlexN

A quick question.. At what (if any) time of the year is M51 an achievable target for austrailian astrophotographers?

Try tonight around 20:00 - but even then 15° altitude is as good as its gets in Bris

strongmanmike (Michael) · #6 09-06-2008, 05:08 PM

Bet a few years ago you wouldn't have dreamed you would be imaging M51 for yourself (well sort of

)..?

Nice work Freddo

AlexN · #7 09-06-2008, 05:09 PM

15deg tonight...

no chance in brisbane

skeltz (Rob) · #8 09-06-2008, 05:23 PM

Nice image there fred,remote imagings a great thing thats for sure.

Dietmar · #9 09-06-2008, 05:24 PM

very nice job Fred!
the colors look very well balanced! details are also very cool!

Bassnut (Fred) · #10 09-06-2008, 06:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlexN

Nice! those GRAS remote scopes are great for adding more targets to your picture gallery...

Yep, its nice to grab the locally unobtainable, it sure expands imaging choices

.

A quick question.. At what (if any) time of the year is M51 an achievable target for austrailian astrophotographers?

I have to ask this question for the NH every time I try, I have a 2nd Starry nights file just for this, something to get used to, but I dont mind

.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alchemy

very nice fred, had a squiz at your other images there (love the M8 Ha), couple nice helix's plus a bunch of other goodies . Big thumbs up

Thanks, Im glad you like them, I dont know if the format is ideal, but a quick scroll seems easier than mutiple thumbnail gallery selections (for the few pics I have).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Garyh

Beaut colors Fred!
A lovely GRAS image!

Thanks Gary, but I processed it

.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Karlsson

One of the best M51 images I have seen...!

LOL, thanks for that, but the likes of Rob Gendler might dissagree

Try tonight around 20:00 - but even then 15° altitude is as good as its gets in Bris

15 deg is tricky, atmospherics would hurt

Quote:

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

Bet a few years ago you wouldn't have dreamed you would be imaging M51 for yourself (well sort of

)..?

Nice work Freddo

Thanks Mike, I know you think mega data is silly

, but I sure would have liked more, couldve sharpened it right up.

Quote:

Originally Posted by rpsastronomy

Nice image there fred,remote imagings a great thing thats for sure.

It still feels like cheating, but Im getting over that

. Its the only way I can image NH, so why not

.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dietmar

very nice job Fred!
the colors look very well balanced! details are also very cool!

I tried not to mess too much with colour balance this time. Using Jases M51 as a reference kept me on track

Tamtarn · #11 09-06-2008, 11:51 PM

Great to see a different galaxy posted. Colour balance looks spot on and oh such a smooooth image

iceman (Mike) · #12 10-06-2008, 09:03 AM

Wow that's stunning Fred, very nice work.

Bassnut (Fred) · #13 10-06-2008, 04:00 PM

Thanks Dave/Barb, Mike . I hope to get a few other NH delights posted too. There are many nice galaxys up that way.

jase (Jason) · #14 11-06-2008, 12:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bassnut

I tried not to mess too much with colour balance this time. Using Jases M51 as a reference kept me on track

Don't use my image as a reference. I'm colour blind and wear R,G,B filtered glasses.

Great work Sir Fred. I would have expected more detail from the Epsilon given its aperture. Well done. Good to see you use some other scopes out there.

Bassnut (Fred) · #15 11-06-2008, 01:09 PM

Thanks Jase. It was frustrating not being able to sharpen up more, shouldve got more exposure time.

Ric · #16 11-06-2008, 04:04 PM

A fine detailed image Fred, the colours are very natural and balanced.

Top shot

Robert_T · #17 11-06-2008, 04:23 PM

Very fetching view indeed

The dust lanes are really prominent in the "satellite" galaxy, a feature I haven't noticed before. Thought you'd picked up a faint outer spiral arm as well, but turned out to be a finger smear on my notebook screen

Bassnut (Fred) · #18 12-06-2008, 05:51 PM

Thanks Ric and Rob. Not being used to RGB, colour was a struggle, despite Jases protest, his M51 was a handy reference.

I had trouble with the satellite galaxy dust lanes, thought I was over processing until I just found this by Ken Crawford, it really is an odd shape.

http://rdelsol.com/Galaxy/M51_LRGB_FC3.jpg

Wouldnt you kill for an image like this ;-).

renormalised (Carl) · #19 12-06-2008, 06:05 PM

I can get M51 at around 22-24º above the horizon... tonight's about as good as it gets, but it's a little cloudy here in the nth part of the sky, so it's not worth trying to image it.

Bassnut (Fred) · #20 14-06-2008, 11:51 PM

OH god, WHY do I BOTHER ????

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap080614.html

:jawdrop :