M51 effort from Cambroon

[RobF]

Had hoped to catch a few low northern Messier objects from Ron's (Astroron) open night at Cambroon. Lots of frustrating problems getting going, so missed almost an hour of imaging while M51 was a bit higher. Astroplanner says I shouldn't have been able to see this at 19:45, so Ron's NW horizon is better than I thought. Only about 5-10 degrees high at the time with slight haze. Fairly heavily processed to pull back red and noise, but I'm stoked to have something to show for the night.

I had quite a bit of trouble getting guiding to behave at all and had to turn EQMOD pulse guiding settings way above normal - is this normal at extreme north DECs anyone, or more trying on alignment/mount performance?

4 x 5mins ISO 800, fully calibrated
450D + MPCC on 8"

(many thanks again Ron!!)

[Tamtarn]

Very nice capture Rob,shows a lot of detail with nice colour.

Too low for us to see down here. :(

[lesbehrens]

nice photo.

[Alchemy]

im amazed you got anything at all at 5 deg, let alone the detail you have,
the atmosphere at that inclination would make guiding a real challenge, due to just movement in the air..... like looking along a hot road in summer.

well done, i might have made the red channel less saturated and layered that in around the galaxy before noise removal.... something to play with.

cheers clive.

[renormalised]

Very good shot, considering at what height the galaxy was at the time, from your location!!!. It would've been like looking through pea soup!!!.

[RobF]

Many thanks Barbara and David. BTW that's a beautiful observatory on your website. Plenty of other targets within your range :thumbsup:



Cheers Les - thanks for looking



Thanks Clive. As a DSLR user I haven't tried isolating individual colours, but will have to have a play as you suggest. I usually image with a pollution filter in place so that also through me off with inital colour balancing....



Thanks Carl - I really thought I'd left it too late. I got a real buzz out of this one when I saw just how much detail was hiding in there. One more 5 min frame I didn't use was REALLY in the soup. There's times I wish I had the extra 10 degrees odd latitude you enjoy up there - for M31 etc!!

[TheDecepticon]

Very Nice! One I'd like to get!:thumbsup: Top job!:D

[astroron]

Top effort Rob seeing that you had a few trials and tribulations,its great you got anything:thumbsup:

[dugnsuz]

Very well done Rob - this object was perfectly placed for imaging back in Ol' Blighty. You've done a excellent job managing to capturing it down here.
In fact always considered this a Northern Object akin to the LMC as a quintessentially southern one.
Top Stuff
Doug

[RobF]

Thanks Gray. Maybe next time you're up our way....



No way I could have had a go at this without your fantastic hospitality Ron. I really wanted an M51 this year to help remember the very similar view through your big dob at 3am in Feb...! Thanks again. :)



Thanks Doug - its always peeved me knowing there's ANYTHING good over the horizon I can't see! Hmmm - I've just googled Ol' Blighty - I do believe you may be from the "old country"!?