Another M51

I think; like many I really love this galaxy.

We have had some interesting weather here in the North Eastern US which was not conducive to imaging but was good for preparing for the up coming summer season. I took advantage of the bad weather and removed my corrector and cleaned what ever it was fogging one of the lenses, well about 90% of it anyways (The procedure was a little unnerving). I also converted a computer CCD water cooling system to my portable CCD set up and now run the St2000 at -25 with only 40% Thermoelectric cooling. Battery drain is minimal but I know I lost a half hour.

This is my first image with the upgrades so I redid M51 to compare it with my last M51.

Comments and especially constructive criticism are most welcome

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John. Simply beautiful. Which scope/exposures/flats? Joe

John,

I like this galaxy, too! I just have to have a camera/scope combo to give it the image scale I want! You've done this version justice, my friend!

Eric

Beautiful work John! 8)
Lovely detail & colors!

Thanks for sharing, and for the hard work!

You have a wonderful deep sky image of this galaxy and surrounding region. There is really not much I would change. The only possible improvement would be to do just the right amount of unsharp masking to reduce the halos around the stars, which would increase the contrast a bit also (see attached).

Rolando

Attached Image:

John,

Excellent image of M51. Looks like you're doing everything right to me. BTW, how about a few shots of your converted water cooling system.

-JW:

Very nice John
I hope to give this one a try soon!


Jason