M51 - Whirlpool Galaxy

[jase]

Hi All,
Just keeping my head above the water of late. Very little time to image so, please accept this measly offering of M51 – Whirlpool Galaxy (http://www.cosmicphotos.com/gallery/image.php?fld_image_id=137&fld_album_id=12)

The Whirlpool Galaxy (M51) resides in the constellation Canes Venatici. Its grand spiral structure contains numerous pink hues are active HII regions. The complex spiral bands are believed to be caused by its close companion NGC5195 (M51b), located above M51 as seen in the image. The Whirlpool Galaxy is approximately 23 million light years distant.

This image is a LLRGB composite consisting of 3.4 hours data (L:70min;R:45min,G:45min;B:45min) taken remotely from GRAS New Mexico. No idea why I continue to image with their TOA150 with ST10XME. I enjoy the focal length the set up delivers, but darn those blooms. I’m really tired of dealing with them. Dare I say it, but I’d be happy dealing with gradients. I suspect my subs are too long. 7-10min for lum and 3-5min for RGB. I like to go deep instead of take hundreds of subs to get a similar result. Anyway, this was a quick processing feat. Usual calibration, registration and combine in MaximDL, Registar. Luminance deconvoluted in CCDSharp – three iterations. I opted for a luminance layering approach to progressively build detail while still maintaining strong colour to minimise colour washout. Minor contrast adjustments, colour balance tweaks in PS along with some other “smoke and mirrors” activities. Background still too noisy for my liking, may revisit with fresh eyes. This is a crop of a slightly larger image.

Thanks for looking. Hope you enjoy it.:)

Cheers

[Tamtarn]

A truly remarkable image Jase. It's been quite a while since your last image but this has been well worth the waiting.

The clarity and smoothness of the processing is marvelous. Looking at the high res it feels like it's drawing you into the depths of detail. Almost a 3D effect.

Thanks for sharing another one of your superb images

Barb and David

[Bassnut]

Holly cow!!!!!, thats awesome. And quit winging, its either NABG and blooms or ABG + time=more money :D

[Ric]

A wonderful image Jase, nothing measly about this one.

It's crystal clear and has some excellent detail in it.

A fine effort.

[jase]

Thanks Barb and David. :) Will try to get online more often. Looked at it again and grieving over the noise. I only performed a two layered approach for noise reduction - first layer, the background only (selective mask). Then second layer, over the entire image. By doing so the background gets two layers of noise reduction applied, but it was obviously wasn't enough. Thanks again for your comments.



Cheers Fred. For wide field instruments such as the TOA150 - ABG anyday. You can almost guarantee with a wide field instrument that there will be a bright star in the field that will cause you "blooming" head aches. Some people thrive on dealing with them, but its not something I pleasure. In fact many moons ago, I join GRAS because on their website they advertised the TOA150 had the STL11k connected. Then when I joined, it had been replaced with the ST10XME. Sheesh. Where's the customer satisfaction gone.;) So the STL11k on the FSQ is more important than the TOA150 for Christian eh? Darn it.:D So G15 is getting a new eyeball...make sure you replace those filters too. Think of captive audience.:poke:



Thanks Ric. Appreciate the kind words.:)

[renormalised]

Tell you what Jase, a shot like that would be good enough for me, never mind quibbling about noise in the background!!!:)

[Garyh]

Very nice Jase! lovely colors and processing and plenty of very faint detail extending out around the galaxies. Didn`t notice the noise but did notice a little blooming on the real bright stars...but that doesn`t worry me!
Top work like always :thumbsup:
Gary

[RB]

I'm glad you also post your failures too Jase......:rolleyes:

:eyepop: :eyepop: :eyepop:
With measly offerings like this who needs sucess........:lol:

Jase I just love your work.
In this one I love how the dust lane extends from the outer left spiral up into the top white core and seems to just glow !

Onya mate.

:thumbsup:

[gbeal]

Lovely Jase. Good to see you keeping your hand in.
Gary

[rogerg]

Looks nice Jase. I'd been wondering if you were around, for some reason hadn't seen posts from you for a while. But then I haven't been keeping a close eye on the Deep Space forum.

I like the shot, very nice colour. Is there slight trailing? the stars don't look perfectly round (ignoring blooming). A little distracting to me. Regardless of that it's a shot I'd be happy with if it were mine.

:)

[h0ughy]

nice work jase

[jase]

Cheers renormalise! :thumbsup: Actually, I think the noise is attributed to the monitor I'm using. I checked out the image on a laptop and it doesn't appear to be present. I do all my processing on EIZO pro-graphics monitor which is rather discriminating to details. Its all good.



Thanks Gary. I'm working on the blooming problem. Been trying some masking techniques as I've found the debloomer plugin in Maxim is good, but not optimal. Need to work on the process to use them both. Thanks again for your comments.:)



Cheers RB:lol: Much appreciated. The dust lane extensions make this an interesting object to acquire. I took of a few longer subs to bring this out and just discard most of the other data from them. This was simply applied using a basic mask. Nothing major. I still think a little more noise reduction may assist, but I'll leave it for now.



Thanks Gary. :)Yeah, Its been a healthy break, but in all seriousness work and family have kept me occupied.



Thanks Roger. I hope to be around here a little more pending variables outside my control. There was slight elongation on the green channel which I believe is the cause. I thought I'd still go with the RGB combine then correct it later (as to not disturb the colour balance). I draw a line at fixing stars when it comes to using the smudge tool or similar. I think if it gets that desperate, might as well acquire more data than spend hours on end tweaking things in PS. Theoretically - good optics + good mount + good environmental conditions reduces image processing time assuming the data collected is good, but this doesn't always calculate. I spend hours on the computer trying to extract as much info from the data as possible. Its pleasing when it comes together. Thanks again for your comments.:thumbsup:



Thanks Houghy. Pleased you liked it.:thumbsup:

[sjastro]

Nice image Jase.

I envy the selection our Northern Hemisphere friends have with regards to galaxies.

I have never had much interest in remote imaging as using someone elses equipment gives me less sense of ownership of the final image. At least however you can take images of objects instead of dreaming about it.

Steven

[Alchemy]

nice to see you submitting some more photons, been a while since your last, we all need to see some more so we can be reminded what quality looks like. thats a deep image. good stuff.

[jase]

Fully concur Steven, those Northern Hemisphere folks certain have some magnificent galaxies.
Don't know how you deal with blooms all the time.;) Drives me bonkers, but I'm working on it. Indeed, remote imaging isn't for everyone. I sense that people are uncomfortable with it possibly due to the fact that its not their equipment. Personally, this doesn't bother me. I have my own gear, but enjoy using different instruments. You still take ownership of the data you acquire while using remote telescopes...and lets face it, its what you do with the data that counts (image processing). Thanks for your comments.



Thanks Clive. Sorry about the hiatus. Should have another image processed by the weekend, though don't know if its the quality you're looking for. We'll wait and see. Thanks again.:thumbsup:

[dcalleja]

Jase
It looks pretty amazing to me. I think the HII regions are really brilliant.

Whats it like doing remote imaging? Part of the 'romance' for me is lugging 150Kg of gear outside and either freezing or swatting mossies! Then lugging it all back.

[richardo]

Hi Jase,
seems we've all had meager pickin's Australia wide, no exception at the mo.
We got dust, cloud, and no rain.
You got cloud and rain.
:doh:
Lovely detail and rich colours Jase, not easy when objects are a tad low.

I love this galaxy, well done indeed.

All the best
Rich

[AlexN]

Awesome.

It was actually a picture of M51 that drove me to astronomy.... Would love to have it bouncing around in my OTA! :)

[jase]

Thanks Dan. Appreciate the comments. Remote imaging provides opportunities. You pay a premium for access to excellent instruments, but the results speak for themselves. If you're under light polluted or bad weather skies, its a good option. Luckily, I have my own observatory under dark rural skies, but I don't always have time to get down there. I'm progressively setting it up for remote operations to improve imaging efficiencies (primarily automation).

There is a lot of flexibility when it comes to imaging. Nothing stopping you from collecting incredible data off a rental scope (long focal length luminance for example) and combining it with RGB data you've collected from your own gear. There are no boundaries when it comes to image processing.

Speak with Fred (Bassnut) if you want to trial one of their systems. I'm sure he'll sort you out. I should note that I don't have an affiliation with GRAS (http://www.global-rent-a-scope.com). I'm just a user of their services. Thanks again.



Cheers Rich. Good to hear from you again. This target was right overhead as it was taken remotely.;) Hear you though, the weather as been crazy of late. When it clears the moon is out. Bless them narrowband filters.:)



Thanks Alex. Thanks for taking the time to comment. Pleased you liked it.:thumbsup:

=======
Thank you again to all those who commented!:)

[sjastro]

Jase,

I use Rod Wodaski's debloomer plugin for CCDsoft. It is a very effective piece of software.

Steven

[Phil]

Hi Jase sorry mate just seen this shot. Again another stunning shot.
Love to get my hands on the Tak 150mm.
Phil