M51 in Technicolor

[The Thing]

Arcsinh stretching has made this a very pretty picture.
431 x 60s at unity gain (1600) using PixInsight Fast Integration. For those that have PI, processing used: SFC_SCC_MGC_Bx_Nx_Arcsinh_DC, then a little Clarity, Denoise and Curves in Affinity Photo.

Image date, time and location:   2025-02-27, Manche France
Telescope aperture and focal ratio:   TS1506UNC 6" f4 607mm fl
Camera and filters used:   QHY294PROC OSC, Svbony UVIR
Processing applied:   Pixinsight, Affinity Photo


Click here for full size image.

[Fay]

Superb Duncan..

[Carole]

Looks great Duncan

[Dave A]

Fantastic Duncan

escargot geant du ciel

[MarkS]

Very nice.  That image goes very deep.  I love the M51 tidal tails.

[Carole]

Even more beautiful zoomed in. 

[RobertM]

That's really excellent Duncan, might even be one of your best images ever.  Normally M51 images are all close-ups but it really comes alive in the wider field due to all the other interesting stuff in the background. The colours are great too.

Robert

[The Thing]

Thanks all. Maybe it is my best yet.

What it really shows is you can't beat lots and lots of data when it comes to deep sky images. Suddenly the processing becomes much easier.

That's why Carole keeps revisiting previous images with more data, really makes a difference...