M81 Progress

[Roy Batty]

I thought I'd re-post an image of M81 I took on the 16th of Feb along with this one from the 4th March just to give an idea of the range of results that can come from more subs, better conditions etc. The only difference kit wise was now I have a dew shield - mainly for shielding the secondary mirror from stray light as the focuser on the C8-N is fairly near the top of the tube.

cheers

RB

16th Feb image (about 30Min's of data)

(click to enlarge)

4th March image (about 50Min's of data)

(click to enlarge)

[Naz]

Wow, the difference is clear, the second image is surely a contender for POW.

naz

[MikeD]

Fantastic result, great colour and detail, you must be chuffed

mike.

[zhgutas]

Improvement is drastic, and the image is superb. I find it especially appealing to see more than one DSO in the same FOV , no matter it's through the scope or in an image

marius

[centroid]

Wow!, what an improvement Roy.

Nice work!!

Dave

[RobH]

Well done Roy, great improvement

Cheers

Rob

[Roy Batty]

Thanks for the comments guys

When I took the first test shot I thought I was on to some good data - this was confirmed when DSS used 49 out of the 60 subs selected.

I think the dew shield is helping quite a bit - at least visually images appear more contrasty to me now.

My next aim is to re-visit NGC1977 with more data and hope to get improvements there to.

cheers

RB

[algol]

nice spiralling there. been looking for some galaxies myself and so far een m31 isnt really visible just a bright gray center and then fain haze around it.

where is my closest dark site? anyone know a site with darksite locations on it?

[Roy Batty]

Had my first go at using Noel's Actions - so I thought this image (4th March one) would make a good first time test.

Here's the result.

RB

(click to enlarge)

[MartinB]

It's a great image Roy and the extra 20 mins has produced a massive improvement. Just think what it would look like with another 50 mins!

Which of Noel's tools did you use?

[Paxo]

Great image Roy and the improvements are there for everyone to see.

Steve..

[LostNSpace]

What a difference that has made Roy, great image......

I had a little go at cleaning the image up for you, just taken a little more LP out of it in PS E6.........i hope you dont mind....

(click to enlarge)

Mark

[CELESCOPE]

Yes that is a massive improvement Roy ,very well done on that mate , M81 is,nt that easy to get those outer arms looking nice , but you have captured it super

Rog

[Roy Batty]

Martin - the Actions I used were: LP removal, Increase star colour, Enhance DSO reduce starts & Local Contrast Enhancement.

Mark - It's a difficult one this, indeed your image takes out still more LP but it comes at the price of cooling the whole image down. I think I tried a "Soft colour gradient Removal" at one point that produced a similar result to yours, but discarded it.

All - Thanks for the encouraging comments

cheers

RB

[LostNSpace]

Yes unfortunately it did cool the image down a little. I think when you used noels actions it does look a little more natural than what i did by taking the LP out almost completely........

Anyways i think it was worth a shot......

Mark

[Roy Batty]

Tried a re-stack in DSS with the addition of some flat files - I think this has helped as I have been able to keep the core tighter in M81 whilst using curves to bring out the arms, plus the effects of LP was easier to deal with.

See if you like this one Mark?

RB

(click to enlarge)

[Sam]

Wow Roy! that's looking very good - it's also bringing out some detail from M82 as well - bonus!

[Atik Man]

Nice image Roy... Hope you don't mind but I tried to remove some of that gradient...

Rich