M51 - wide-field (Tom Gray)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Canes Venatici (CVn) · Contains: HD117815 · HD118019 · IC 4263 · IC 4277 · IC 4278 · M 51 · NGC 5169 · NGC 5173 · NGC 5194 · NGC 5195 · NGC 5198 · NGC 5229 · Whirlpool Galaxy

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M51 - wide-field

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M51 - wide-field

We are enjoying some clear, steady skies at present, perfect for galaxy season, if there wasn't a full moon! Nevertheless, encouraged by my image of M101, I turned my scope to another bright galaxy, the iconic whirlpool M51 last night. In fact a pair of galaxies, with the smaller yellowish NGC 5195 passing behind M51 (NGC 5194), which is lit up with blue star clouds as a result of the interaction. M51 lies around 31 mLY from earth, and was the first spiral to be resolved by Lord Rosse's Leviathin at Birr castle, at the time the largest reflecting telescope in the world with a 72" speculum mirror.

A number of small edge on galaxies are seen in the frame. There appears to have been an issue with my flats, leaving a few artifacts, so I have darkened the background more than I would like. I also think that my focus was a bit off; currently I focus manually with the aid of a homemade Bahtinov mask, but looking to extend my RPi4 to provide autofocus capabilities. The RPi4 and Stellarmate OS worked flawlessly. Some would consider RGB imaging under a bright moon, lunacy...

Final
Original
B
C

B

Title: Cropped

Description: Processed in Siril with back ground extraction, stretched, with colour calibration, HDR, sharpening and final noise reduction in Startools. Deconvolution limited by ringing artifacts, and these remain evident in brighter stars. I found removing all the green produce very unnatural colours

Uploaded: ...

C

Title: Cropped - Siril

Description: Same cropped data processed and finished in Siril - I've kept the background a bit lighter for a more natural look

Uploaded: ...

Altair Astro 183 M/C Hypercams
UK Astro-Imaging
Messier Objects
Low-Cost Astrophotography

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Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	7485035
PixInsight job	C6M4FY6LTDHVEYEPDN9IS3XO9D5MXSEB
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	13h29m48s.84
RA (top/left)	13h25m35s.21
RA (top/right)	13h27m44s.64
RA (bottom/right)	13h34m08s.93
RA (bottom/left)	13h31m48s.62

Dec (center)	+47°14′44″.6
Dec (top/left)	+46°34′10″.1
Dec (top/right)	+48°10′19″.6
Dec (bottom/right)	+47°54′44″.9
Dec (bottom/left)	+46°19′02″.10

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M51 - wide-field

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