2014 M101

Hello all,

2014 has been a very busy year for our household, with a correspondingly lazy response on my part with respect to processing images. Some of you may remember me sharing a shot I took of this galaxy back in 2011. Now that we have a suitably long focal-length telescope (allowing for more zoomed-in shots), I’ve been visiting targets (or revisiting, in this instance) more suited to these longer focal lengths.

I shot this back in April/May 2014, and processed it on and off since then. Among many challenges was deciding on the overall color of the galaxy. I've finally settled on this version, though I'm open to suggestions on my processing of this target. Galaxies are a very different type of animal to capture and process.

This is my third try at M101. The first was back in 2006 from our light-polluted backyard with a smaller-chipped camera at a focal length of about 800mm:

http://www.skiesbyafrica.com/Galaxies/Images/M101/M101andFriend-2006.jpg

Then back in 2011 I shot it again at our remote observatory in New Mexico, with a bigger chip, at 1000mm:

http://www.skiesbyafrica.com/Galaxies/Images/M101/M101_2011-75Pct.jpg

And now, here is my most recent rendition, shot with the same camera from 2011, but this time at 2500mm:

http://www.skiesbyafrica.com/Galaxies/M101.html

http://www.skiesbyafrica.com/Galaxies/Images/M101/M101_2014.jpg

Enjoy,
Eric

Attached Image:

Hey Eric, it looks very natural and not over processed. I think it is pretty good myself.

Hi Eric,
The color looks spot on to me and the processing has a restrained, natural feel that one doesn't see often enough.
Good work.

dan kowall
photonhunter.com

Thanks, Floyd and Dan! I was going for exactly that "not overprocessed" look with this one. I *may* play with sharpening it up a bit, so there may yet be a "2.0" version (or at least a "1.1") version of this image in the near future...

Eric