M51, The Whirlpool Galaxy

 

 

 

Date:

 

5/15/01, 5/16/01 & 5/17/01

Exposure:

 

LRGB: 12x5m, 3x5m, 3x5m, 3x10m.  RGB binned 2x2. -10°C, 2.65 arc-sec./pixel

 

Processing:

 

Acquired, reduced, aligned and combined in CCDSoft beta, RGB combine in Maxim, L+RGB combine, curves, levels, bloom repair and other adjustments in Photoshop.

 

Hardware:

TV-140 5.5” f/5 APO refractor, ST-8E NABG/CFW-8A CCD camera, G-11 mount, Hutech LPS filter.

 

Software:

CCDSoft v.5.00 b13, TheSky v.5.00.010, RoboFocus 3.13, Photoshop v.6.0.1

 

Location:

 

32N, 111W, 893 meters Elevation

Comments:

I was after this for a long time.  I was pleased with the result despite the small image scale.