M81/82 Firstlight of Everything

[Penfold]

This is my first image with the WO GT81 & Filter Wheel, Guiding, EQMOD and basically getting everything working together in MAXIM.

It needs a lot more data, plus I haven't got round to flats yet, setup last night using pinpoint (love how that works) in Maxim to get more data but it was too windy and the guiding fluctuated too much and so didn't get around to getting flats.

This is from 27/11

20 - 300s L

10 - 300s each of RGB plus darks & bias.

My processing was done mainly in CS3 and I seem to have blown out the core and so will have to go back and perhaps process that differently when I've more data.

[Telrad]

Mark, excellent first image of The Cigar and Bode's! Well done. I particularly like the star fields and detail that you've captured in both galaxies.

[Penfold]

Thanks, I do seem to have some halos around the reddish stars not sure how to get rid of them.

[rocketandroll]

Awesome!

Lovely to see some pics of these two creeping back in again as they rotate back up a bit higher :-)

Ben

[Sparrow]

Good image there - always a favourite. As far as the cigar is concerned, I found I had to process it seperately from Bodes to avoid blowing it out. That way I was able to keep more of the lovely "red stuff" in it. Perhaps you could try that. Otherwise, the data looks good.

Regards

John

[Penfold]

Cheers Ben

That's a good idea John, I'll try that when I have more data.

In the mean time I re-processed it.

Any better

[rocketandroll]

Yep... I think I prefer the second one.... more detail showing even though 81 is feinter... very nice :-)

Ben

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Nice images. I slightly prefer the second one.

[Sparrow]

Yep that's better - beginning to see more of the cigar now. With selective processing you can also now brighten Bodes a bit to bring it out. Well on the way to being an excellent image

Regards

John

[evilgeenius]

Excellent image!

The first one has more of a POW but I prefer the cigar in the second.

[spaceboy]

Oooo very nice!

[Anweniel]

Agree with the consenus the second is preferable but for me its only because the cigar looks to be already lit in the first

[RobH]

Nice job!

M82 and the core of M81 look better in the second, but the first one is more eye catching. Try layering the first over the second and erasing through to just bring those bits in from the second image.

Re.the colour halos, you can draw a selection around the star and then drop back the saturation of that particular channel...that normally controls halos quite well. They don't look bad to me though...in fact, you've kept star colour very well.

Cheers

Rob

[Penfold]

Thanks for all your comments and help.

Here we have iteration #3

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Nicer still. Really like the image.

[Penfold]

Thanks a lot Michael I'm really pleased with it now especially as it was my first proper guiding attempt.