First light for concrete slab! - M81 and M82

[Helen]

I tested out the concrete slab last night. Much better views from there than our patio (Mike was rather relieved at this )

So I chose M81 and M82. 20s subs, NS8 ALt Az, ATIK 16ic, 0.5FR, IR blocker, captured with Artemis, stacked and initial process in AA4, tweaked in elements

M81 - 100 subs

(click to enlarge)

M82 - 24 subs usable out of 190 :shock: VERY bad case of cordwrap :shock: :shock: so will find out tonight how much damage I've done

(click to enlarge)

Helen

[MartinB]

Wow look at those beauties! Fantastic detail in M81 and just look at the core in M82 :shock:

Don't worry about those lost subs in M82 Helen. The nice thing about the Cigar is it's all bright without much in the way of dim detail - the opposite of M81. So your core wouldn't have been much improved with longer exposure. The fuzzy outer bits would have been a bit less noisy and you might have got a little more star burst. Save the exposure time on M82 for Ha to get the starburst

Well done, it's really coming together now, exciting times!

[Parallax]

Now don't take this the wrong way. I'm not "having a go" or anything and I know it doesn't make a scrap of difference but you seem to have 'mirrored' these images. I just thought that you would like to know.

Steve

[centroid]

Well done that slab of concrete!!

You really are producing some great results from an Alt AZ set-up Helen, very commendable

I reckon that when the obs is complete, and you are setup in EQ and guiding, there's going to be some real 'crackers' emmanating from that Welsh Valley. 8)

Keep them coming!!

Dave

[MikeD]

Great result Helen, love the dust lane detail in M81.

Mike.

[jgs001]

Nice images Helen

[radioactive]

Cracking stuff Helen . The images that is not the Slab

have sent you a pm

[CELESCOPE]

excellent work Helem by heck you have improved big time , two good images there ,

keep them coming now

Rog

[barkis]

Wonderful stuff Helen. You have sure got the seven league boots on now.

Giant strides indeed.

Ron.

[Helen]

Thanks everyone Too shattered to get it out tonight (long hard day!), but supposed to be clear tomorrow too! Really looking forward to my permanent set up though

I think my processing is improving as a reasult of getting Astroart for Christmas - the digital development seems to work brilliantly on galaxies. I'm not sure how to use it all properly yet, but experimentation seems to be bearing fruit!

Helen

[trudie]

Great images Helen.

Trudie