M51 effort from Cambroon

[RobF (Rob)]

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 (Les)]

nice photo.

[Alchemy (Clive)]

Originally Posted by RobF

. 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 is this normal at extreme north DECs anyone, (many thanks again Ron!!)

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 (Carl)]

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 (Rob)]

Originally Posted by Tamtarn

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

Too low for us to see down here.

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

Originally Posted by lesbehrens

nice photo.

Cheers Les - thanks for looking

Originally Posted by 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.

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....

Originally Posted by 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!!!.

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! Top job!

[astroron (Ron)]

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

[dugnsuz (Doug)]

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 (Rob)]

Originally Posted by TheDecepticon

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

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

Originally Posted by astroron

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

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.

Originally Posted by 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

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"!?