M51 - The Whirlpool Galaxy (Andrew Klinger)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Canes Venatici (CVn) · Contains: M 51 · NGC 5194 · NGC 5195 · Whirlpool galaxy

M51 - The Whirlpool Galaxy, Andrew Klinger

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M51 - The Whirlpool Galaxy

While waiting for my main target to rise I captured a couple hours of light on M51 for fun. As you can imagine this is an enormous crop on my system, but small intricacies in the spiral arms are still somewhat visible.

Equipment:

OTA: William Optics GT81 w/Flat6A (382mm fl at f/4.7)

74mm aperture stop-down ring (brings scope to f/5.2)

Mount: Orion Sirius EQ-G (HEQ-5)

Guidescope: Orion 50mm guidescope

Guiding camera: Orion StarShoot Autoguider

Imaging camera: ZWO ASI1600MM-Cool

Software:

SGP

PHD2

CdC

PixInsight

Acquisition:

Location: Atoka, OK (Bortle 3)

Dates: 5/31/19

Gain: 76 Offset: 15

Camera temp: -20C

L: 6x180"

R: 6x180"

G: 6x180"

B: 6x180"

Total integration time: 1hr 12min

64x darks per calibration (master from library)

200x bias per calibration (master from library)

Preprocessing:

Batch PreProcessing script to generate calibrated images

StarAlignment to register all frames to the reference

ImageIntegration

DynamicCrop each master

RGB Processing:

TGV and MMT noise reduction (via Jon Rista's method)

LinearFit to Blue

ChannelCombination

BackgroundNeutralization

ColorCalibration

ArcsinhStretch x3

HistogramTransformation

SCNR green

CurvesTransformation for saturation

L Processing:

Deconvolution

TGVDenoise

Arcsinhstretch x2

HistogramTransformation

MultiscaleLinearTransform for sharpening

Combined L and RGB with LRGBCombination tool

CurvesTransformation to balance background

MorphologicalTransformation to reduce star sizes

UnsharpMask to harden the stars a tad

Please note: The following tables are updated every 24 hours.

Distribution of astrophotographers

This table shows the number of distinct astrophotographers who have been assigned and IOTD/TP award compared to the total number of images awarded.
	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
Top picks
Top pick nominations

Distribution of subject types

This table shows the distribution of awards per subject type, compared to the popularity of images of that subject type.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Deep sky
Solar system
Extremely wide field
Star trails
Northern lights
Noctilucent clouds
Landscape

Distribution of data sources

This table shows the distribution of awards per data source, compared to the popularity of images acquired from that data source.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Backyard
Traveller
Own remote observatory
Amateur hosting facility
Public amaeteur data
Professional, scientific grade data
Mix of multiple sources
Other
Unknown

The “AstroBin Image of the Day and Top Picks”, or IOTD/TP, is a long-running system to promote beautiful, interesting, peculiar, or otherwise amazing astrophotographs, with a focus on technical excellence. Learn more.

Submitted The date and time when you submitted this image for IOTD/TP consideration.	...
Views by Submitters (available since September 19th, 2023) Every image is assigned to 50% of available Submitters. In the event that at least 80% of them don't view the image before its time in the IOTD/TP process expires, it's assigned to the other 50% of Submitters and the process begins anew.
Promotions by Submitters When 3 distinct Submitters promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for Top Pick status. This requirement, in addition to anonymization of images and distribution to only a subset of them, prevents biases and ensures that the best images are selected.
Promotions by Reviewers When 3 distinct Reviewers promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for IOTD status.
Early dismissal Staff members have a lot of images to inspect on a daily basis, and they can dismiss images if they believe they don't meet the requirements for IOTD/TP selection. If an image is dismissed 5 times, it's removed from the process. This streamlines the process and ensures that any bias present in promotions could be overruled by other staff members.

Status	Basic success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	2724536
PixInsight job	n/a
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

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M51 - The Whirlpool Galaxy

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Image Index:

Contribution Index (beta):

M51 - The Whirlpool Galaxy

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Acquisition details

Description

Comments

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