M101 with added time

[bobharmony]

I got another 4+ hours on M101 back on the 6th and have been messing with integrating it ever since. I am still getting used to the care and feeding of the modded D5300, particularly getting useful flats.

The light panel I have used for the past few years with the Canon has a decidedly blue tint to it, which the Canon didn't seem to mind in the least. The Nikon is a bit more finicky. So I took a set using an iPad as a light source. It has a much better balance between RGB channels. The flats I used for this image weren't quite perfectly exposed, peak at about 6500. I am happy to report they showed some effect on the final image, which didn't happen with the old blue flats until the flats were exposed to the point of clipping on the right side.

In any case, the arms are showing better in the combined data from the two nights, and the background requires less work to correct. In this image I haven't used the Filter module in StarTools at all, this is just the result of a normal process.

C and C welcome as always. I will refine the flats exposure a bit although I jostled the camera a bit while collecting the last group and may have messed up the alignment a bit.

Bob

[Juno16]

Hey Bob,
Glad to hear that things are coming together! Man, who’d thought that Canon and Nikon would be so muck different!
You definitely captured a bunch of faint wispiness of the galaxy arms. Nice details! Good job sir!

[Jockinireland]

Looking good Bob!

[j.gardavsky]

I got another 4+ hours on M101 back on the 6th and have been messing with integrating it ever since. I am still getting used to the care and feeding of the modded D5300, particularly getting useful flats.

The light panel I have used for the past few years with the Canon has a decidedly blue tint to it, which the Canon didn't seem to mind in the least. The Nikon is a bit more finicky. So I took a set using an iPad as a light source. It has a much better balance between RGB channels. The flats I used for this image weren't quite perfectly exposed, peak at about 6500. I am happy to report they showed some effect on the final image, which didn't happen with the old blue flats until the flats were exposed to the point of clipping on the right side.

In any case, the arms are showing better in the combined data from the two nights, and the background requires less work to correct. In this image I haven't used the Filter module in StarTools at all, this is just the result of a normal process.



C and C welcome as always. I will refine the flats exposure a bit although I jostled the camera a bit while collecting the last group and may have messed up the alignment a bit.

Bob

A super capture, deserving an APOD!

It is the Mel Bartels nebula making the nice frame!
This nebulae are highly likely IFNs, but according to their close proximity to the galaxy, they are also looking like tidal flows around the galaxy.

Visualy, I have only seen a glowing bow around the M101, but not these details, maybe I have suppressed the details as uncertain, or the observing conditions have not been good enough.

A similar glow, also documenetd by Mel Bartels, and seen through my binoculars, surrounds the M51, but at a larger distance away from the tidal glows of the M51.

Another tidal glow in this area of skies is on the Sunflower galaxy M63, https://forum.astronomie.de/threads/m-6 ... fe.305276/

Clear skies,
JG

[messier 111]

fine work , very nice details , thx

[STEVE333]

I got another 4+ hours on M101 back on the 6th and have been messing with integrating it ever since. I am still getting used to the care and feeding of the modded D5300, particularly getting useful flats.

The light panel I have used for the past few years with the Canon has a decidedly blue tint to it, which the Canon didn't seem to mind in the least. The Nikon is a bit more finicky. So I took a set using an iPad as a light source. It has a much better balance between RGB channels. The flats I used for this image weren't quite perfectly exposed, peak at about 6500. I am happy to report they showed some effect on the final image, which didn't happen with the old blue flats until the flats were exposed to the point of clipping on the right side.

In any case, the arms are showing better in the combined data from the two nights, and the background requires less work to correct. In this image I haven't used the Filter module in StarTools at all, this is just the result of a normal process.



C and C welcome as always. I will refine the flats exposure a bit although I jostled the camera a bit while collecting the last group and may have messed up the alignment a bit.

Bob

Looking very nice Bob. Getting some good details on the core.

I had problems with the RGB channels not getting equal illumination when I used my laptop as the "light panel" for taking lights. The Red channel was the weak one for my setup. I ended up putting a single layer of red cellophane over the laptop screen and it helped balance the channels. Don't know if anything like that would work for you.

Thanks for sharing your beautiful image. Looking good!

Steve

[bobharmony]

A super capture, deserving an APOD!

It is the Mel Bartels nebula making the nice frame!
This nebulae are highly likely IFNs, but according to their close proximity to the galaxy, they are also looking like tidal flows around the galaxy.

Visualy, I have only seen a glowing bow around the M101, but not these details, maybe I have suppressed the details as uncertain, or the observing conditions have not been good enough.

A similar glow, also documenetd by Mel Bartels, and seen through my binoculars, surrounds the M51, but at a larger distance away from the tidal glows of the M51.

Another tidal glow in this area of skies is on the Sunflower galaxy M63, https://forum.astronomie.de/threads/m-6 ... fe.305276/

Clear skies,
JG

Thanks, JG. I never considered IFN as a possibility here but what I have captured matches up well with some of Mel Bartels' drawings that I looked up after reading your post. I may try to refine the processing a bit to see if I can get it closer to his sketches. It makes me wonder if StarTools is trying to clean it out as gradients, that is what I thought it was initially, as I am near a large city and M101s path rises up out of it over the course of the evening.

Bob

[Gmetric]

Looking good, Bob. Nicely done

[bobharmony]

Looking very nice Bob. Getting some good details on the core.

I had problems with the RGB channels not getting equal illumination when I used my laptop as the "light panel" for taking lights. The Red channel was the weak one for my setup. I ended up putting a single layer of red cellophane over the laptop screen and it helped balance the channels. Don't know if anything like that would work for you.

Thanks for sharing your beautiful image. Looking good!

Steve

Thanks, Steve. I have heard of using colored cellophane to even out the channels a bit. If my wife has some laying around I may give that a shot I'll need some red and also some green to balance out the strong blue cast the light panel puts out. The iPad is remarkably well balanced, but is only just larger than my aperture on the short side and can be a little finicky to get positioned just right.

Bob

[bobharmony]

Hey Bob,
Glad to hear that things are coming together! Man, who’d thought that Canon and Nikon would be so muck different!
You definitely captured a bunch of faint wispiness of the galaxy arms. Nice details! Good job sir!

Yes, Jim, the two cameras certainly have different personalities. I am settling in with the Nikon and figuring out what it likes. The color-balanced flats is a big deal and will help with moving forward for me. I like the detail it produces with the smaller pixels and it is more sensitive than the Canon. I did 120 second subs for this image at ISO 400, which gave me around 250 subs in total over the two nights. DSS didn't choke on it, but it does take a bit longer to produce a stack than I am used to. I am thinking of trying ISO 200 the next time out and either keeping the sub length the same or maybe raising to 180 seconds - I'll have to see what the histogram looks like in APT.

Bob

[STEVE333]

Thanks, Steve. I have heard of using colored cellophane to even out the channels a bit. If my wife has some laying around I may give that a shot I'll need some red and also some green to balance out the strong blue cast the light panel puts out. The iPad is remarkably well balanced, but is only just larger than my aperture on the short side and can be a little finicky to get positioned just right.

Bob

You're welcome Bob.

You might try yellow or orange cellophane as it would pass more red and green and much less blue. Just a thought.

Steve

[MariusD69]

Great image! Well done, Bob!!

[jthommes]

Nice image Bob. I like the wide field.

The discussion on the Mel Bartels IFN is interesting. Hard to see on DSS2 plates (but there is very little care with the background on these plates). You don see much (if any) on internet images of M101 in AP. I suspect that is because many will likely extract their background to make an appealing image. My initial impression was a flat mishap (particularly since you expressed some concern in you initial comments). But JG's comments got me thinking. It would be interesting to do a deep M101 image that concentrates on background rather than trying to make a pretty M101. I'll bet someone has done it and I just couldn't find it.

[Astrovetteman]

Great image Bob!! Maybe I'll try this one again with my wide field .
Excellent Image and CS!!
Tom

[Larry 1969]

Very nicely done Bob!
Great image! Something to be proud of for sure!

Larry