M101

[twilbur]

My latest



Full size:
http://www.conlinhill.com/gallery-galaxies-m101-003.htm

[dsnay]

That's beautiful Ted.
If I did my math right, you've got over 6 hours of time just collecting the photonsx That's persistence!
Did that make it easier or harder to process? I'm hoping it made it easier.

Dave

[twilbur]

Thanks Dave! Slightly more than 6 hours counting color. After initial processing I took more LUM because I was hoping to pull out more core detail. It made the image deeper but I couldn't get much more detail out of it.

I checked an old shot taken with the LX200, unguided - elongated stars but dripping with core detail. I think this shot would be more satisfying if I used LX200 data for the galaxy LUM. That may be true for other objects as well. I'm going to try to see if I can merge the resolving power of the 10" with the wide field of the 60mm.

[dsnay]

Ted,

That sounds like a possibility, but how would you go about dealing with the difference in scale?
I'm pretty sure I've seen images where people have done it, but I have no idea how it's accomplished.

If you manage it I can't wait to see the results!

Dave

[twilbur]

Hey Dave,

I use Picture Window to align images but other software could do it also. Picture Window has a "shift/rotate/scale" 2 star align function that makes it a snap. I do it as a subtract to make sure everything is lined up well and then switch to the register option when ready to save. That puts the resulting image in the same scale and orientation. After that it's just a selective cut and paste onto the Tak-60 LUM. I'm all excited to try it.

[dsnay]

Hey Ted,

Picture Window almost sounds like cheating. I love cheating whenever possible!
Hope you don't mind but I hijacked your image and played with it a bit. I tried to bring out the color of the stars a little bit. Not sure if it's any better but it was fun to try. It would be more fun if I had any good data of my own to work with. Anyway here it is. what do you think?



Dave

[twilbur]

I don't mind at all. The yellowish stars do look better, but several flaws in the image are now apparent - there are numerous green stars and there's a green tint to the outer arms of the galaxy.

[dsnay]

Ted,

That's what I get for playing with color before I make sure my monitor is using the correct profile.
Here's another try at it. Some of the stars still look a little too blue I think, but there is definitely more color outside of the galaxy.



Dave

[njnightsky]

All I can say is WOW.