M51

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M51 - Canon Digital Rebel (300D)
Object: M51

Date: April 19, 2004

Location: My-Spot Observatory - West Bloomfield, Michigan (ZLM Approx 4.0 - 18.3 mag / arcsec2)

Exposure(s): 16x 5 Min

Camera: Canon EOS Digital Rebel (300D)

Equipement: 10" f/10 Meade OTA w/GEG and focal reducer at f/7.5 on Losmandy G-11

Guide Scope: ETX90 OTA and SBIG ST-4

Software & Processing: Linear tif files were extracted from the Canon File Viewer Utility. Each frame was "dark frame" subtracted from a master dark frame made that night from 8 dark frames in Picture Window Pro 3.5 and then roughly processed with levels (Thats right - Levels - not curves). The tifs were then aligned and stacked using Registar 1.0.7 and then processed and cropped using Picture Window Pro. A pseudo flat field was made from a stack of 8 "cloud-bottom" shots made in the daylight that was then smoothed and "calibrated" to the 16 image M51 stack. Thus, the flat field was only approximate. The flat field was then subtracted from the 16 image stack in PWP and the final image was then tweaked using levels and curves. There apprears to be some "amp-glow" or thermal noise on the right hand side of the image.

Other Notes: First light for my new Canon EOS Digital Rebel (300D) and my first attempt to process an all digital deepspace image.

Info: M51, also called the Whirlpool Galaxy is at a distance of 50 million light years.

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Updated: 07/29/04 04:58:52 PM