Long time no talk! I've been super busy with law school and unfortunately haven't had the time to enjoy my favorite hobby... However, last night I decided to go through some old data, and I am so happy with the results that I wanted to share!
To remind you guys, I live in a Bottle 8 and my conditions are seldom good enough for astrophotography. I switched to narrowband to remove this factor, but the last couple months I was setting up I decided to give galaxies another shot.
I shot M51 about a year and a half ago, but I could not process the images enough to make it something that I would be willing to share... There was too much gradient, so much color noise, and it just did not look like what I often see here on
However, coming back to it with a fresh mind and having forgotten all of the
I'm guessing I need to turn up the gain and lower my exposure time, because my histogram appears to be verrrry close to the left, sometimes even crossing over the left side. If you guys have any other suggestions to prevent this, I would love to know for the next time I head out into the field!
Messer 51 (The Whirlpool Galaxy)
m51 by James wainwright, on Flickr
If you guys have any thoughts or suggestions, I am all ears and, as always, very open to criticism! Let me know if you like the image too!