M51 Whirlpool Galaxy



Click on image for full-size version

Date: 16 April 2021
Location: High Halden, Kent
Exposure: 360 x 30sec at ISO 10000 (3 hours of data)
Telescope: Celestron C11 with Starizona LF 0.72x corrector on Skywatcher EQ6 mount
Camera: H-alpha modified Sony A7S
Guiding: Nikkor 300mm lens with QHY5 camera.
Filters: IR/UV Blocking filter
Processing: CFA drizzle stacking in PixInsight and stretched with Arcsinh Stretch
Comments: Each year I return to my favourite galaxy. The larger version is a 1920x1080 crop of a 1.5x CFA Drizzled stack with a modest amount of deconvolution and noise reduction. It's the most detailed version I've managed to create so far.