M51 - Colour fixed (I got the data finally)

[Bolts_Tweed]

Heres something I took this week using GRAS 11 and 7

I have spent about 20 minutes on this here at home and I know it needs work. Hopefully I will have time in a bout 2 weeks ;). I know the colour has problems and there is too much colour background noise but i'll fix that and the stars are a bit marshmallowy (is that a word) but again I cant put some shorter exposure stars behind it later. UIt is about a 50% crop.

Lum taken with the 0.5metre Planewave in New Mexico (60 minutes) and R & B taken with the 17 inch Planewave in Spain (cheaper) - 30 minutes each. Green synthesised (hence the colour problem). Cameras were both FLI ProLine PL11002M.

Used Ken Crawfords MSLDB technique for detail. Hopefully I can fix the colour when I get time to give Kens detail processing credit. Wait for it at the conference - the difference it can make in detail is incredible (even when poorly done by someone like me).

Anyway here it is - back to nametags and presentations for me.

Mark Bolton

[jjjnettie]

Very nice indeed.
Gorgeous!

[John Hothersall]

Thats a great image of a wonderful galaxy but a bit blue, great tidal streams caught.

John.

[Bassnut]

Excellent Mark, top work, but its upside down ;-)?

[ngc891]

Lots of detail - SN aswell

[Bolts_Tweed]

Thx guys - I will be happier with full colour data to get it right. What ireally wanted to show was kens technique (even when quickly applied) can do huge things for detail.

Yeah I know what you mean Fred - it must be those Americans setting their scopes upside down.

Will hopefully have it finished by the conference to push GRAS - yep I've got a heap of points to give away as a door prize.

Mark

[kitsuna]

am I going crazy, or am I seeing a moving object in the top left hand corner? I'm seeing 3 dots in 3 different colours very close to each other (Green Blue and Red).

What the heck is that/are they? :question:

edit:

I took a look at the picture I did of M51 on 20/06:

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=77238

There's a faint smudge in the same orientation as where I'm seeing the 3 coloured blips in your picture. I only found it in mine because it's much more immediately obvious in your picture due to the colour differences.

I took mine at 10:51pm New Mexican Time 20/06/2011. When did you take yours?

I've also compared to an image from this thread:

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=76563&highlight=M51

The more I compare yours and mine to the image in the third link, the more I'm certain of it:

No weird blur/ 3 object thingy in that image that I could find, but that was taken 05/06 or earlier...

mebbie it's a comet? :eyepop: :shrug:

further edit:

checked the Deep Sky Survey site. Pulled up M51 and found those 3 objects. So I guess it's unlikely to be a comet. Pity that. :lol:

makes me wonder why it came out as 3 different colours in your image though. :question:

[Bolts_Tweed]

Gday Adam

Interesting. The subs were taken over a week - well the lum was taken about 10 days ago and the R & B taken over the last couple of days. So if it is anything it is really slow moving:question:. When i get time I will have a look at a few other images of it on the web and see if it is there as well.

I gave in - the colour was annoying me so I am imaging the green channel as I type and will hopefully post a full image ina couple of days. As soonas I finish this undergrad marking and can take a break from teh conference organisation.

Thought I would show Fred why the image is upside down - see attached photo - and this is Roland Christens stand at the AIC last year. You think he would know the scope goes on top ;)

Mark

[Bolts_Tweed]

Just checked the green sub I just took and the old subs and its there in all of em - (as confirmed by your DSS check) - intersting line of sight thing I suppose.

M

[kitsuna]

My theory is this;

they're just 3 stars in close visual proximity, one blue, one red, and one white with coincidental orientation.

The false green overwrote the white star due to input by your processing, and the blue and red star are normal.

I checked various incarnations of the DSS archive in both blue and red wavelengths. Depending on which I chose, one object was visibly reduced, or disappeared.

I suspect the third image link I posted perhaps DID show those three stars, if very faintly due to conrast adjustments done to bring out the luminescence of the Supernova (which was the focus in that picture)

Because of the coincidental orientation and similarity in size, aided and abetted by the greenish colour of one of them, you can see how if one assumed you'd done each colour individually in short succession how it might have been interpreted as a moving object.

False alarm. Pity that. :lol:

[Bolts_Tweed]

Wait for it I cant upload the image - this is just a test

[Bolts_Tweed]

Got the green today, turned down the Neon and Gave the stars a minor pinch. I swore I wasnt going to do this - I was going to keep marking asignments but well I am weak. This is more to my taste but then again I am basically beige.

Would like some Ha to highlight HII regions but - nope not going to do it until next week - B strong

Mark

[Ross G]

Looks good Mark.

Great processing.


Thanks.

Ross.

[Bolts_Tweed]

Thanks Ross - It turned out pretty well but all credit for the processing technique goes to Ken Crawford's tutorials.

I am hopeless but (I should be happy and move onto the next one)- the more I look at it - i'd like to tone down the core region with a bit of HDR (this only has a DDP stretch) and maybe add the Ha to bring out the HII regions I know are in the spiral arms.

Maybe later - thanks for the comments

Mark

[atalas]

Nice detail Mark!

[multiweb]

You've got some awesome data there Mark. Just need to tweak your color balance and you'll have a pearler. :thumbsup:

[Bolts_Tweed]

Added some Ha to show the HII regions

MB

[DavidU]

That's a beautiful image. Well done all round.

[Bolts_Tweed]

Thx David ut im sorry it si a bit like being given War and Peace chapter by chapter (maybe water torture)

MB

[John Hothersall]

Lovely Ha, the background fuzzies are best in the first image but colours are better in the reprocessed - processing never ends. Great image though.

John.

[Bolts_Tweed]

Yeah I agree John - Ï am waiting for Ken Crawford to get here - sit him down in the bar and say "give me a hand with this"

I think there is a loss of detail in the last one but all i did was bring through the HII regions in lighten mode on hte original Lum (at 50%)- I actually painted out all the stars and noise etc within the galaxy in the Ha.

As you said it is never ending. I just finished marking so I am having another play with the image now but I wont keep subjecting you it.

MB

[Bassnut]

Thats looking very nice now Mark, but a 37kb thumbnail is a mighty small image from a mighty big camera !.

[Bolts_Tweed]

Yeah fred

I still have to work out the comrepssion rate for images here. I upload an 8cm wide jpg at 300 DPI at about 550kB and it ends up as 37 k - I suppose there is my answer. I'll have a play after ther repro of the repro

MB