1st attempt at proper PI processing on M81 / M82

[Catanonia]

I took the plunge recently and shelled out £150 for a PixInsight license and therefore thought since I had it, I had best use it.

Also I really wanted to get a good natural image of M81 and M82 and maybe try to get some of the flux (IFN) in the image. I have tried many times and these pair of galaxies are by bench mark for new scopes / cameras and processing aquirements.

So for the last 2 nights, I sorted out all of the kit and got the guiding good for 15 minutes.

However as you all know, the seeing has been rather pants and it seems to have affected me in getting the IFN. I can just make it out as a blue haze around the area, but well it is pretty poor.

The image processing was a very steep learning curve, about 3 hours work tonight gone into this to learn the techniques and play with PI.

All of the calibration, stacking, and about 80% of the processing was done in PI. For the 1st time ever I did not touch MaximDL or DSS.

The final touches were done with good old PhotoShop CS5.

The image details are as follows and I hope you like it, still got a lot of processing learning to do.

LRGB (105:105:105:105) in 15min subs. No Ha as seeing was so bad.

Imaged on Skywatcher MN190 and QHY9 + 2 inch filters.

Guided with EQ6Pro, QHY5, ED80 and PHD.

Processed with PixInsight and CS5

[dc509]

That's great! Do you think PI is worth the money?

d

[Magnum]

Thats a fantastic image

[jwr]

That's a stunning result. I'm also just about to hit the button on a PI license so it's good to see what can be achieved.

James.

[AndyUK]

Wow - The colours you've achieved makes this look like one of Mr Shah's with his AG12...! Stunning...

[Catanonia]

That's great! Do you think PI is worth the money?

d

Definately if you are used to the other software commonly used such as Photoshop and DSS.

It takes time to learn, it is completely different to all the other programs, but worth the effort.

It does help that I am good with Photoshop and am a computer consultant by trade.

Probably taken me about a week in total to get about 50% they way through it.

having a 8 CPU FAST computer does help too

Get the trail version and start to play with it.

[Darth Takahashi]

Very nicely done ideed, well captured and processed... PI takes some learning but its worth the effort. I've been using it now for about 3 months and each time I discover new features.