Leo Triplet

It has been a while since I have posted anything so I thought that I would share this. I took over two nights this week when the sky seemed to be at its mosy clearest. However moisture in proved to be a rather big problem when processing due to the level of noise it generated. It took three or four attempts to process to a point I was relatively happy with. The detail in the galaxies suffered a bit due to processing out the noise in the background and for some reason the calibration files that I was using seemed to only add to the problem. So in the end I didnt use any dark or flat frames.
Some details: 24 x 5min subs, taken though the TS90mm APO, guided with a QHY5 and PHD on a HEQ5, processed with DSS, PixInsight and PSCS4.
All comments and criticisms welcome.


Higher res:
Flickr

Very good work and well composed.
I am delighted you posted it...

Hi,
This image I like, its eyepiece realistic, was only looking at these on Friday night through the scope in the Burren.

Lovely image and nicely framed.

Well done.

Brendan.

Hi Johnny,


Well done as Brendan says the framing is great very nice color balance and you got some Very nice detail also.

What problems where you getting with the dark and flats frames, where they taking on the same night of where they older ones.

Carl.

carlobeirnes wrote: Hi Johnny,


Well done as Brendan says the framing is great very nice color balance and you got some Very nice detail also.

What problems where you getting with the dark and flats frames, where they taking on the same night of where they older ones.

Carl.

I was getting really bad banding issues after stacking, I am not sure if it was because of the calibration frames or not, it just happened to be better when I didnt use them. I think it is more of a temp issue with camera than anything else (as the nights are getting noticebly warmer) I am currently looking into building a cooler box for the camera (the Peltier type boxes). I took the dark frames on the first night at the end of the session so the camera was probably quite hot by this stage.
I was working on M101 on a night after this and had to discarde most of the subs due excessive noise. I am hoping that it clears up for tonight to go at it again and this time I will try to space out the darks (start/mid/end) to see if it makes any difference.
Thanks for the comments by the way.