Messier 51, the Whirlpool Galaxy (Evelyn Decker)

Messier 51, the Whirlpool Galaxy

Finally after two weeks of clouds/rain/storms, I was about set to image this target at Echo Bluff State Park's Dark Sky Event, when I found myself without a ride nearly last minute! To compensate, I decided to head over to my normal imaging spot and collect data of this galaxy.

This is a first attempt at using the ASI178mc with my 130mm reflector telescope, and I was definitely pleased with how the sub-frames generally looked. My major gripe with this image is that I likely overexposed my subs without guiding due to my polar alignment error, which caused the stars to be moderately elongated. In addition, there were several bright street lights speckled all over the place, which caused serious glow at the corners of the image. I am likely going to continue working on this image, periodically collecting more data for it.

Regardless of all that, I'm pretty happy with the result as a first attempt at M51.

B

Description: A touch of contrast was added in the structure by using the blue channel as luminance @ 66%. In addition, I did an extra iteration of noise reduction/slight sharpen/less crunchy. Overall subtle difference, but I think it helps a bit with the object's contrast.

Uploaded: ...

C

Description: Near complete revision using StarTools as the main processing software. The focus was effective contrast in the object and color correction. Used old image as luminance. Stars came out crunchier, so I selectively blurred the most noticeable (and a few dimmer), also smoothed a few outlying galaxies.

Uploaded: ...

D

Description: Reprocessed with the intention of removing the amp glow... background sky is slightly brighter, but much smoother. Noise reduction isn't as aggressive, and a little bit of adding noise was necessary to keep the picture as smooth as possible. Stars are a little less fat. Star Tools only used to add life to the grand spiral and HDR applications for more spiral contrast (it did make some weird stuff happen to the core, but I personally think the picture looks fine without trying to correct it). Other smaller background anomalies have revealed themselves better, like dust specks (at this period of time, I did not have the time to wait until morning to take flats).

Uploaded: ...

E

Description: Some noise control applied, horizontal banding reduced. Slight contrast drop in galaxy, but background is much smoother. Gradient X-terminator with the intent of equalizing background colors, hot pixel reduction using color noise reduction.

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F

Description: different approach, drizzled 2x, fiddled with colors to attain a better balance, attempted noise reduction using Topaz DeNoise AI.

Uploaded: ...

Galaxies

	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
Top picks
Top pick nominations

	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

	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

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Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	3358876
PixInsight job	8OQRNLTSGSYU0NE0M22OW6QTCBRDCN5Y
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

RA (center)	13h29m49s.992
RA (top/left)	13h29m54s.513
RA (top/right)	13h31m34s.405
RA (bottom/right)	13h29m45s.416
RA (bottom/left)	13h28m06s.580

Dec (center)	+47°12′46″.20
Dec (top/left)	+46°53′32″.73
Dec (top/right)	+47°20′17″.35
Dec (bottom/right)	+47°31′59″.39
Dec (bottom/left)	+47°05′08″.74

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