M51 The Whirlpool Galaxy

Hi all,

Here is an image of M51 the whirlpool galaxy; I’ve spent the last three years trying to image this Galaxy. Every time I went to image it something would go wrong from clouds to mount trouble also CCD trouble the list goes on.
But I’m happy to report I fell over the line and finished it. There is a total of 16 hours exposure time gone into this image RGB was 3 hours on each channel and the Luminance was 7 hours using 5 minute subs. The Image was taken through a Williams optics 110mm scope and processing was done in images plus and Photoshop CS3; Hope you like the results

Please click on the image to enlarge.

www.webtreatz.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-129

Carl.

Congrats Carl, that really is excellent. Well worth the massive effort. There is a real lesson in here that there is no quick hits in astro imaging. If you want an image like that, there is no substitute for patience and lots and lots of data.

Hi Dave,
Thanks for the feedback and your right deep sky imaging takes up a lot of time and can be very frustrating; you’ll ways get there in the end.

Carl.

I like this......I Like this a lot

I'd like to know more, such as mount, guide camera, what type of CCD camera you are using

CarlightExpress wrote: I like this......I Like this a lot

I'd like to know more, such as mount, guide camera, what type of CCD camera you are using

Hi Simon,

Thanks for the reply. As I said on my post it took me quite a while to get this image; it was taking on the CGE & AP1200 mounts; through a Williams’s optics 110 mm scope an Atik 4meg CCD camera guiding was done through a Celestron 80ed with a Sbig ST402. Exposures where 5min subs with darks and flats calibrated. Images where captured using Maxim DL and ACP software. Processed in Images Plus and Photoshop CS3.
Ps,
Are you happy you asked now :>))

Yep I am now