M81 & M82.

[Dbswales]

Seeing as the weather so bloomin' ugly at the minute, I decided that I'd have a bash this evening at processing some subs that I took of the above last April.

Processed through PixInsight which I recently purchased after trying a few different ones.

Lights & Darks

15 @ 90secs     15@ 45secs   15@ 15secs

No flats and no bias. I'm sure that I took bias but couldn't seem to find them in the folder for some reason.

 Skyatcher 130pds.

HEQ5

Canon 600D

Anyways, thanks for looking and any CC gratefully accepted.

 

[Charic]

...as good as any picture in any book, well done.

And something I have just noticed, how often the 130 is mentioned for astro work, whereas my mind was set on an ED 80 or 100 should I venture into astrophotography.
 

 

[wimvb]

That's a very good result considering the short exposure time you used. In your signature it doesn't say anything about guiding, so I guess you don't use it. To improve you will need to get the noise down. More subs (many more) can help do this. It will allow you to stretch  more, revealing more detail in the outer regions of the galaxy.

You can also try to tame M82 by applying HDRMultiscaleTransform. You may just reveal more detail in the Ha jets.

 

Good luck

[Yamez]

I've been wanting to try and image m81 and m82 for ages but for some reason when i have my camera attacked i can never locate it, i've been able to locate m81. After locating that i scan around the area taking test exposure shots to find m82 and it never seems to pop out anywhere, any advice. Im using an alt-az mount as well so long exposures is a no no. 

[wimvb]

As you can see in the image, M82 is as bright as M81, if not more. If you can locate M81, then you move your scope along the galaxy's long axis to get to M82. Depending on your sensor size, you should be able to get both in the same frame.

[Adam J]

56 minutes ago, Charic said:

...as good as any picture in any book, well done.

And something I have just noticed, how often the 130 is mentioned for astro work, whereas my mind was set on an ED 80 or 100 should I venture into astrophotography.
 

 

I have a 130pds some of my friends image with a ED80, I honestly dont think I would swap with them if they offered. Its not as practical (size / dew / colimation), but its faster, gives nice spikes (if you like that), crisp images, has about the same focal length, coma is easily dealt with using a MPCC MK3 and you dont need to worry about chromatic aberration. Oh and its far far cheaper.

[Dbswales]

52 minutes ago, wimvb said:

That's a very good result considering the short exposure time you used. In your signature it doesn't say anything about guiding, so I guess you don't use it. To improve you will need to get the noise down. More subs (many more) can help do this. It will allow you to stretch  more, revealing more detail in the outer regions of the galaxy.

You can also try to tame M82 by applying HDRMultiscaleTransform. You may just reveal more detail in the Ha jets.

 

Good luck

No you're right. I wasnt guiding when I imaged that but have bought the gear since then so just waiting to get some clear skies and hopefully will then be able to get longer subs.  Saying that, I managed to get an hour or so last Wednesday but between the intermittent cloud cover and the strong winds behind them, phd wasn't too keen! 

As ive found with everything AP, it's just not going to happen overnight is it? I must be honest, all things around AP has been a tough learning curve but guiding looks like a real jungle?

 

[wimvb]

I too haven't started with guiding yet. I will need to bite the proverbial bullet some day, but at the moment it's low on my to do / shopping list.

The more things you hook up to a scope, the more things can break. And the way the weather has been, I'm not too keen on spending clear nights troubleshooting.

I'll just limit my imaging to bright objects and wide field with low weight gear, for the foreseeable future.

Cheers,

[piprees]

Lovely image. If you can get your head around masks, you can lasso the cigar galaxy and work on it on it's own, bringing out loads of colour.

[Charic]

20 hours ago, Adam J said:

I have a 130pds some of my friends image with a ED80, I honestly dont think I would swap with them if they offered. Its not as practical (size / dew / colimation), but its faster, gives nice spikes (if you like that), crisp images, has about the same focal length, coma is easily dealt with using a MPCC MK3 and you dont need to worry about chromatic aberration. Oh and its far far cheaper.

Noted, thanks

[uhb1966]

very nice!!! Especially as the exposures together dont have that much integration time.