Messier 51 (M51)

The Object
M51, Whirlpool Galaxy. An interacting pair of galaxies with tidal waves of stars visible to the top, right and left. Plenty of other galaxies are visible as well.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whirlpool_Galaxy]Information at Wikipedia.[/url]

The Process

• 39 15 Minute lights (9h45m) captured 3/20, 3/21/09 with Nebulosity 2
• Bad columns and pixels fixed with my fixfits utility
• Stacked with 100 flats, 100 dark flats, and 100 bias frames in DeepSkyStacker.
• Processed in PixInsight Core with DBE, histogram transformations, ACDNR, HDRWaveletTransformation, Masked curve for saturation,
  
  ICCProfileTransformation.
• Published with PaintShopPro X2
• The monitor used during processing was calibrated using Spyder3Elite. The image was processed and published using the sRGB color profile for
  
  the widest possible compatibility. FireFox 3 has color management capabilities. Use Google to find out how to enable these.

The Hardware

• William Optic Megrez 110ED with TRF-2008 flattener
• QHY8 with IDAS-LPS filter
• EQ6/Atlas EQ/G controlled by EQMOD
• Guided with a DSI-Pro
• Focused with a Bahtinov mask (drawn by myself in InkScape)
• Flats created with an EL panel. Two sets of 50, rotated 90 degrees
• Kept dew free with Dew-Buster

Image of the setup

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