M81

[alan4908]

My first attempt at M81 with my new imaging set up (SW Esprit 150 on a 10micron GM1000HPS). 

The combination of the scope and the camera (Trius 814) yields 0.7 arc seconds per pixel which seems to work well on this object. I'm also very impressed by the unguided tracking accuracy of the 10micron mount which often gives me rounder stars than when I guide with my SW ED 80 on a NEQ6 (imaging at 1.4 arc seconds/pixel). Anyway, the following is an LRGB image, processed in PI and PS and represents just over 12 hours integration time.   

There are quite a few background fuzzies in the image for distant galaxy hunters.....

Alan

 

LIGHTS: L:26, R:15. G:18, B:15 x 600s. BIAS:100, DARKS:30, FLATS:40 all at -20C.

[rwilkey]

Alan, that is excellent, well done!

[PhotoGav]

Oooh yes, I like that very much! A great advert for the kit you are using. It is certainly a fascinating target. I am always attracted by the apparent striations across the right hand side of the galaxy disk. I wonder what is going on there?! The conspicuous areas of HII make it look as though you must have used an Ha filter, but I was amazed to see that this is just LRGB. Good work!

[StuartJPP]

Top shot that...very nice indeed.

[Allinthehead]

Very nice.

[MartinB]

Excellent M81 Alan.  I like the core which is almost burnt out but positively glows giving a sense of the dynamic range.  Often this gets flatted too much by HDR.

[carastro]

That's one of the best M81s I have seen. Lovely capture and processing.

Carole 

[alan4908]

19 hours ago, rwilkey said:

Alan, that is excellent, well done!

Thanks Robin !

19 hours ago, PhotoGav said:

Oooh yes, I like that very much! A great advert for the kit you are using. It is certainly a fascinating target. I am always attracted by the apparent striations across the right hand side of the galaxy disk. I wonder what is going on there?! The conspicuous areas of HII make it look as though you must have used an Ha filter, but I was amazed to see that this is just LRGB. Good work!

Yes, there's quite a lot going on in this galaxy. I also was very pleased with how the HII regions revealed themselves without the use of my Ha filter 

18 hours ago, StuartJPP said:

Top shot that...very nice indeed.

Thanks for the comment Stuart.

10 hours ago, MartinB said:

Excellent M81 Alan.  I like the core which is almost burnt out but positively glows giving a sense of the dynamic range.  Often this gets flatted too much by HDR.

Thanks Martin. Yes, I was a little concerned that I was going to burn out the core with my 600s subs. However, after a few test shots, I found that I was above the non linear region but below the saturation level of my camera.  Not ideal, but I decided to proceed to see what would happen. I experimented with HDR in the subsequent processing but since this didn't reveal any further detail, I decided not to use the result, since all it did was to make the core darker.

 

7 hours ago, carastro said:

That's one of the best M81s I have seen. Lovely capture and processing.

 Thanks Carole !