A deep M51 through the integrated flux nebula. I've never noticed the dusty stuff in other RGB images but you can see some of it in Wise Band 3 infrared so it doesn't seem to be a processing artifact
The background is a bit ugly because I did stretch this fairly violently to show the IFN better...
Wow! Just Wow!
I have no words to do that image justice but crikey that's impressive!
A galactic collision on a cosmic scale, one of the top ten of the year imo.
Inspires me to one day try to shoot galaxies
Thanks for sharing
Andy has already the first superlative that came to my lips
Gosh Rick, a fav object for so many, and this might be the most inspiring pic of it I've ever seen.
Interesting you went for the lesser focal length. Was that the plan all along to go for surrounding flux neb, or just image train you normally run that rig with? With the 16803 its a gobsmacking FOV! Agree about the dust off to the side - have never seen it shown so well. Just amazing.....
Wow! Just Wow!
I have no words to do that image justice but crikey that's impressive!
A galactic collision on a cosmic scale, one of the top ten of the year imo.
Inspires me to one day try to shoot galaxies
Thanks for sharing
Thanks, Andy! I find galaxies particularly difficult to process but they are truly amazing objects.
Quote:
Originally Posted by RobF
Andy has already the first superlative that came to my lips
Gosh Rick, a fav object for so many, and this might be the most inspiring pic of it I've ever seen.
Interesting you went for the lesser focal length. Was that the plan all along to go for surrounding flux neb, or just image train you normally run that rig with? With the 16803 its a gobsmacking FOV! Agree about the dust off to the side - have never seen it shown so well. Just amazing.....
Thanks very much, Rob. We've been running at f/4.9 since we needed to recollimate (which is a process that has to be done in the fast config) and nobody has been on site for long enough to set up for f/9 again. So, it was just a happy accident I think the set up is actually more versatile at f/4.9 because you get the big FOV and still have the ability to drizzle up to higher res.
Really nice Rick, I have to agree with Ray, that softness to the image really does it justice. Some of the kinda faint fuzzies are kinda resolved so that's nice.
I have found that from the limited imaging I have done, doing a drizzle integration does help with stellar shapes. That's probably been a part of imaging at 1.4-1.5"/pixel which usually ends up with 2<FWHM with local seeing conditions. My mount tends to flare them out more!
Really nice Rick, I have to agree with Ray, that softness to the image really does it justice. Some of the kinda faint fuzzies are kinda resolved so that's nice.
I have found that from the limited imaging I have done, doing a drizzle integration does help with stellar shapes. That's probably been a part of imaging at 1.4-1.5"/pixel which usually ends up with 2<FWHM with local seeing conditions. My mount tends to flare them out more!
Thanks, Colin. I find it hard to avoid a misty look when enhancing the dust but it seems to work well for these images.
Drizzle does a great job on the square stars you get with a short FL refractor like a FSQ-106 and 9um pixels
Quote:
Originally Posted by Somnium
wow Rick, that is simply stunning, well done
Thanks, Aidan.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul Haese
This is a really nice looking image Rick. Lovely colour and detail. Certainly a different scale from what is often seen of this object.
Ta, Paul. I didn't think the world needed another vanilla M51
Very nice, mate, galaxy is just lovely! That one beautiful attractive spot in all that blackness, would absolutely love to be in a space ship out there seeing that sort of stuff, in colour or not!
Very nice, mate, galaxy is just lovely! That one beautiful attractive spot in all that blackness, would absolutely love to be in a space ship out there seeing that sort of stuff, in colour or not!
Thanks, Bart.
Quote:
Originally Posted by phomer
Rick,
I wondered how you could produce such an impressive image of M51 from Australia and then I noticed it was from California.
Well done.
Thanks, Paul. Definitely wouldn't have been possible to do that from home in Brisbane
Quote:
Originally Posted by Stevec35
Extremely nice Rick! You don't often see this thing in wide field.
Thanks, Steve. I really like the big field of the current setup at SRO. With Drizzle you can still get a reasonable level of detail on larger galaxies too.
