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M51 photo (finally)

  1. Apr 13, 2015 #1

    Andy Resnick

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    And lo, after 8 days of rain, the night sky did appeareth:

    1h_6m_2x.TIF%20RGB-2_zpsx3x9bkzf.jpg

    1 hour total integration time@ 800/5.6, ISO 2000.
     
    Andy Resnick, Apr 13, 2015
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  3. Apr 13, 2015 #2

    Chronos

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    Nice shot. What was your optical train?
     
    Chronos, Apr 13, 2015
  4. Apr 14, 2015 #3

    Andy Resnick

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    Just my telephoto lens and Sony a850... am I misinterpreting? Each exposure was 20s long....(?)
     
    Andy Resnick, Apr 14, 2015
  5. Apr 14, 2015 #4

    russ_watters

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    That's an 800mm telephoto lens? Impressive lens! What was it mounted on?
     
    russ_watters, Apr 14, 2015
  6. Apr 14, 2015 #5

    davenn

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    Well Done Andy !

    Don't think I can see that one from here in the southern hemisphere .... aahh Stellarium tells me it gets to only a few deg above the horizon :frown: I would be shooting through murky thick atmosphere
    I know its a perennial fav for the nthrn hemisphere guys

    Im assuming that this was a 100% crop of the original image ( ie. you didn't resize the image out of the camera before cropping)
    as M51 wouldn't fill the frame like that with 800mm on a full frame sensor ( nor on a aps-c sensor either for that matter)
    and would explain the fuzziness and noise

    This thread may be of interest to you astrophotographers ...
    http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?p=17500235


    Dave
     
    davenn, Apr 14, 2015
  7. Apr 21, 2015 #6

    Andy Resnick

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    I rewarded myself three years ago with a Losmandy GM8- and have been extremely happy with it. I went from zero experience to 20s exposures in 15 minutes- alignment is trivial.
     
    Last edited: Apr 21, 2015
    Andy Resnick, Apr 21, 2015
  8. Apr 21, 2015 #7

    Andy Resnick

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    Yep- that's a crop. The full frame shows nearby galaxies NGC 5198, IC 4263, and IC 4282. The image I posted here was made from jpgs, which accounts for most for the quality problems- The RAW version looks much better, not sure why I haven't posted that yet....
     
    Andy Resnick, Apr 21, 2015
  9. Apr 27, 2015 #8

    Andy Resnick

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    Had another good viewing night last weekend, was able to sharpen things up a bit. Here's essentially the full-frame (central 2/3, anyway):

    1h_24m_raw.TIF%20RGB_zpss1ebt8vi.jpg

    It still needs some work, but the nearby low-surface brightness galaxies IC 4263, NGC 5169, and IC 4278 are clearly visible. Here's the 1:1 closeup:

    RGB_2_zpssjqfudfx.jpg

    Not bad... now it's time to switch over to the Virgo supercluster (weather permitting...)

    Edit- slowly getting the hang of this whole 'post processing' thing....
     
    Last edited: Apr 27, 2015
    Andy Resnick, Apr 27, 2015
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