M109 LRGB

[x6gas]

I was a bit surprised that there aren't more pictures of M109 on here... and then I tried to image it!

Not helped by the fact that I am still tuning my mount and had the meshing of the worm and ring gear too tight (which meant very rapid error that was impossible to guide out - got better when I slackened things off a bit, but lost a precious night of imaging...)

Anyway, not too much data and what I did get was compromised by less than ideal conditions.

L: 48 x 300s; R: 28 x 180s; G: 28 x 180s; B 26 x 180s (RGB binned 2x2)

Usual set up for this kind of thing:

Mount: CGEM DX

Scope: EdgeHD 11

Camera: Atik 490 ex

Guiding: PHD2; IMG0H; Atik OAG

Another target that needs more / better data but like many people I am taking what I can get in this weather with a mobile set-up.

Thanks for looking, Ian

[sologuitarist61]

Lovely image of this barred spiral Ian - great detail and lovely colour - nice processing!

[ollypenrice]

Every credit. This is nicely done.

Olly

[x6gas]

Many thanks Richard and Olly.

For some reason I couldn't get RegiStar to play ball on this data - trying to register the 2x2 RGB data to the 1x1 binned luminance when bizarrely wrong with RegiStar doing fine on the stars at the centre of the image but then from half way out warping them non-linearly (introducing odd curves of the frame at the edges).  Never had this before but it did it every time, whether I used FITS or TIF files and where I had pre-stretched the data or not...  Very strange.

I moved to PHD 2 to guide this an I'm impressed by the new features (in particular being able to adjust DEC settings as well as RA) but I do want to try AstroArt for guiding at some point.

Thanks for the comments!

Ian

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Very nice image

[Barry-Wilson]

Lovely image of the barred spiral - you've got me making a note to try M109.

Barry

[C7tsj]

Nice image, nice and vibrant.

[Martin-Devon]

Lovely image Ian, delicately handled as ever. I'll have to try PHD2 as well, have it loaded up, just need to get a clear night to see what it will do.

Martin

[morimarty]

Thats a very nice image Ian on as you know a very difficult target. I had no end of problems when i attempted to image it. in particular the blue channel with internal reflections light scatter etc, I think it was caused by near by phad. also keep us upto date with guiding using astro art/ phd2 as I would also like to try this out in future again well done!

[x6gas]

Thanks for the kind comments Michael, Barry, C&7, Martin, and Martyn.

Yes Martin and Martyn, I'd encourage you to give PHD 2 a go...  Basically the same as PHD but with some modifications to the settings dialogue and to the visualization - very useful to be able to tweak the DEC settings...

I seem to have resolved the issue with RegiStar... Cropping out the dodgy boarder seems to have sorted it so I'll try a reprocess using my usual workflow so I might be able to tighten up the stars a bit...

Cheers, Ian