M 51

M 51 – Whirpool Galaxy


Date/time: 22.05.2009 23:30 to 23.05.2009 03:30
Az./Alt. positions: 244° / 84° to 293° / 46°
Ambient conditions: 10°C, transparency 5/5, seeing 4/5
Location: Trier, Germany

Equipment:
Telescope: TMB 130 SS f/7 with TSFlat
Mount: CGE
Guiding: selfguiding with ST-4000XCM  
Camera: SBIG ST-4000XCM
Filters: IDAS LPS

Acquisition:
Software: CCDSoft V5 with manual dithering
FOV, Image scale: 57.2 x 57.2 arcmin, 1.68 arcs/pixel
Sub-exposures: 2h 45min (11 x 15min) lights @ –20°C,
58 x 10min darks, 30 x 1s flats calibrated with 50 bias @-10°C

Processing:
Images Plus 3.8: DDP, Background/Highlight Smoothing,
Color Balance/Neutralize Background.
PS3: Color enhancement with Gabani's method, noise reduction
with Carboni's Actions, slight unsharp mask.

Comments:
This is the first test image with my new TMB 130 SS and the upgraded ST-4000XCM.
The camera still shows very high residual noise and the break point for DDP was very 
low at 280. Different processing techniques were tried, the best one being the full
control under Images Plus. The scope is a marvelous piece of optical engineering and
has a very high quality/price ratio.    

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Filename: galaxies/m51_2009-05-22_full.jpg
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