crimbfighter
Been spending a lot of time on here!
- Joined
- Jun 4, 2010
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- 2,219
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- 1,784
- Location
- Wisconsin, United States
- Can others edit my Photos
- Photos OK to edit
Tis been some time since I've posted any astro photos here. The last year or so has been busy and not provided me with many opportunities to image the night sky. I took the opportunity recently to image M51, The Whirlpool Galaxy, again. First, I re-re-re-reprocessed the data I captured of M51 about two years ago. Then, I captured a new image of M51 with a different scope, showing a wider FOV. M51 is a pair of galaxies locked in a death spiral where one is consuming the other. This galaxy resides about 23.5 million light years from Earth. Below are the two images with relevant information on each image.
1. The data for this image was actually captured in 2024, but has undergone several reprocessing adventures as my editing and processing techniques developed. This image represents the most current workflow for astro image processing. I captured the image with a Celestron EdgeHD8, 8" Schmitt-Cassegrain reflector telescope. Using a focal reducer makes the scope an f/7 scope at a focal length of 1420mm. While not filling the frame, the long focal length shows a lot of detail in the galaxy. This image consisted of 250 individual subframes at 120 seconds each, making the total integration time for this image 8hrs 42min.
2. For this image I used my 130mm refractor. With the 0.8x reducer, it has the effective focal length of 750mm at f/5.6. I like this image because I think it helps give perspective on the size of the galaxy. You can also see many more of the small background galaxies in the wider FOV. This image consisted of 94 individual subframes at 180 seconds each, giving it a total integration time of 4hrs 42min.
1. The data for this image was actually captured in 2024, but has undergone several reprocessing adventures as my editing and processing techniques developed. This image represents the most current workflow for astro image processing. I captured the image with a Celestron EdgeHD8, 8" Schmitt-Cassegrain reflector telescope. Using a focal reducer makes the scope an f/7 scope at a focal length of 1420mm. While not filling the frame, the long focal length shows a lot of detail in the galaxy. This image consisted of 250 individual subframes at 120 seconds each, making the total integration time for this image 8hrs 42min.
2. For this image I used my 130mm refractor. With the 0.8x reducer, it has the effective focal length of 750mm at f/5.6. I like this image because I think it helps give perspective on the size of the galaxy. You can also see many more of the small background galaxies in the wider FOV. This image consisted of 94 individual subframes at 180 seconds each, giving it a total integration time of 4hrs 42min.
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