Tej Dyal
Whirlwind Brutal Capture of M51 Whirlpool Galaxy in moonlight
My friend and I checked out another dark sky location in south England, this time was Bignor Hill, twice the distance from London than our previous location, Toy's Hill.
But boy was it WINDY.
Also, the moon was at 66% illumination.
Nevertheless, the reason we came is that forecast was for clear skies all night...a seldom occurance in our UK skies. And sure enough the forecast held true.
I decided to have a go at imaging the M51 Whirlpool Galaxy despite the moonlight and the uh...whirlwind conditions. Furthermore, my Celestron Nexstar Alt Az mount is not a mount that can handle windy condition but not having the legs extended on the tripod improves stability. A tip for you beginner photographers in case you didn't know.
Given the windy conditions I guessed a lot of my images will be no good so I went for a very brutal ISO 6400 capture which means a lot more noise and much less dynamic colour range. (I normally shoot 800 or 1600).
Sure enough, out of 1000 shots of 6 seconds frames, I ended up with just 244 frames that were reasonably stable. That's 25min 5sec total exposure.
So the resulting image was very very noisy. You might notice a bit but I elimanated the noise in post process but by doing so the faint outer spiral arm is also elimanated...a compromise. You will also notice I cranked up the highlights...sorry, too blinding for you? Ha.
I aint going for astrophoto of the year, this is just another personal souvenir for a fun adventure with my friend in scouting these English locations for stargazing and imaging!
About this fascinating Galaxy: the M51 (23 million light years away) looks like it is gobbling up the smaller yellowy galaxy but actually that smaller galaxy is passing by tugging at the M51's outer spiral arm...probably asking for a pound to buy a cuppa. I would love to see this galaxy in all its glory through the eyepiece but I couldnt see this through the eyepiece that night which I was quite sad about. I'll have to wait for a moonless clear night and dark sky to see it...so jealous of my camera's "eye"!
Capture Details:
Camera: Canon EOS 650d unmodded connected to external battery for uninterrupted imaging.
Telescope: Equinox 80 Pro APO
Mount: Celestron Nexstar 6/8SE (Alt Az)
Additional accessories: Dell XPS13 Ultrabook tethered to camera for best focussing . No flattener used this time as in the windy conditions it would have wobbed the system more! So another compromise there.
244 frames each being 6 seconds - 25 minutes total exposure time.
ISO 6400 (too high hence lack of dynamic range in colours and slight loss of detail in M51's outer spiral but I felt a necessary compromise due to windy conditions limiting good frames for total exposre time)
50 Dark frames
Post Processing:
Stacked with Deep Space Stacker,
Levels and curves adjustment in PS to improve contrast and details. Brutally clipped curves to eliminate noise at sacrifice of part of the outer spiral arm of M51. No masking done, all adjustments applied globally.
Whirlwind Brutal Capture of M51 Whirlpool Galaxy in moonlight
My friend and I checked out another dark sky location in south England, this time was Bignor Hill, twice the distance from London than our previous location, Toy's Hill.
But boy was it WINDY.
Also, the moon was at 66% illumination.
Nevertheless, the reason we came is that forecast was for clear skies all night...a seldom occurance in our UK skies. And sure enough the forecast held true.
I decided to have a go at imaging the M51 Whirlpool Galaxy despite the moonlight and the uh...whirlwind conditions. Furthermore, my Celestron Nexstar Alt Az mount is not a mount that can handle windy condition but not having the legs extended on the tripod improves stability. A tip for you beginner photographers in case you didn't know.
Given the windy conditions I guessed a lot of my images will be no good so I went for a very brutal ISO 6400 capture which means a lot more noise and much less dynamic colour range. (I normally shoot 800 or 1600).
Sure enough, out of 1000 shots of 6 seconds frames, I ended up with just 244 frames that were reasonably stable. That's 25min 5sec total exposure.
So the resulting image was very very noisy. You might notice a bit but I elimanated the noise in post process but by doing so the faint outer spiral arm is also elimanated...a compromise. You will also notice I cranked up the highlights...sorry, too blinding for you? Ha.
I aint going for astrophoto of the year, this is just another personal souvenir for a fun adventure with my friend in scouting these English locations for stargazing and imaging!
About this fascinating Galaxy: the M51 (23 million light years away) looks like it is gobbling up the smaller yellowy galaxy but actually that smaller galaxy is passing by tugging at the M51's outer spiral arm...probably asking for a pound to buy a cuppa. I would love to see this galaxy in all its glory through the eyepiece but I couldnt see this through the eyepiece that night which I was quite sad about. I'll have to wait for a moonless clear night and dark sky to see it...so jealous of my camera's "eye"!
Capture Details:
Camera: Canon EOS 650d unmodded connected to external battery for uninterrupted imaging.
Telescope: Equinox 80 Pro APO
Mount: Celestron Nexstar 6/8SE (Alt Az)
Additional accessories: Dell XPS13 Ultrabook tethered to camera for best focussing . No flattener used this time as in the windy conditions it would have wobbed the system more! So another compromise there.
244 frames each being 6 seconds - 25 minutes total exposure time.
ISO 6400 (too high hence lack of dynamic range in colours and slight loss of detail in M51's outer spiral but I felt a necessary compromise due to windy conditions limiting good frames for total exposre time)
50 Dark frames
Post Processing:
Stacked with Deep Space Stacker,
Levels and curves adjustment in PS to improve contrast and details. Brutally clipped curves to eliminate noise at sacrifice of part of the outer spiral arm of M51. No masking done, all adjustments applied globally.