Bode's M81/2

[Shibby]

Here's the result of my efforts from last night. Stayed nice and clear all night so managed to grab 3.4hrs of M81+M82. Doesn't quite match up to some of the exellent Bode's images being posted on SGL recently! Still a few issues with star halos but pleased to extract more detail than I have on a previous attempt. (Have never picked up Holmberg IX before!)

41x5m, ISO 800

450d modified

Vixen GP + EQMOD

SW 150PDS

Orion finder guidescope + SPC900

Here's a wider field, showing a few extra fuzzies, but also a bit of gradient creeping in:

[FrankieValley]

Very nice indeed I tried the same targets last night, but it was too windy for guiding a 250PDS. Still, I got my best results to date with only 5x3min subs with my modded 1000D. Not as good as yours though.

[en51nm]

I couldn't even find M81 and M82 last night, unforgiving LP in Reading!

Great images!

[JohnC64]

Very nice - getting the start of the Ha filaments in M82 in there too:icon_salut:

[Zul]

Great images!

[Sam]

Very nice images. I like the first one better it seems a nicer composition. You've captured some lovely colour.

[Shibby]

Thanks guys I'm quite pleased with the depth, but it's still a little noisy in the fainter areas; I suppose the only thing that will sort this is another 3 hours or so of exposure (more?)! I would try for longer subs, but been having some guiding issues - it's all new to me.

[Shibby]

Am I obsessive? I think I probably am. Having already posted an image, I seem to now spend hours staying up late reprocessing it just to eke out a tiny bit more detail (even though commenting somewhere else recently that I don't do this!)

In reality, there is no substitute for more data but I think I have eked a bit more detail out, most of said eking in the red channel. Some more of the M82 filaments are coming through! Perhaps a bit too noisy for this image scale? Stars not looking too great. I don't know, is this version better? Honest opinions please, I'm starting to go bleary eyed staring at it!

[MartinB]

You've improved the colour but at the expense of noise. Personally i'd go for the first one. A very fine image

[Black Knight]

Very fine indeed . Not too shabby Shibby!

[SJJ]

Nice wide field view. They make a great image, well done.