M81 & M82 - 90 mins RGB, 140 mins Ha, Nikon D5300a

[Xiga]

Hey guys

We had a couple of clear night over the weekend (finally!) so i decided to put the man-flu to one side and get back to imaging. I mostly went for the Rosette Nebula (still a WIP for now) but once it passed behind the neighbour's house i was starved of any other Ha targets. The big, bright moon was well up at this stage, but the skies were crystal clear so it seemed like such a waste not to use them. So, i decided to go for M81 & M82, seeing as they were well positioned, and just hoped that shooting galaxies under a bright moon wouldn't be anywhere near as bad as shooting nebulae in RGB under the same conditions. 

Due to the lateness of the night, and my own health limitations, all i could manage was 140 mins of Ha on the 1st night, and 90 mins of RGB on the 2nd night. I made a boo-boo on night 2, and captured at ISO 800 instead of 200, which resulted in most of the stars being blown-out (i really, really hate how SGP is obsessed with ISO 800. why won't it let me set a default?!). The Ha data wasn't really of much use if i'm being honest. The OSC data picked up the Ha portions of M81 just fine, so it was just the jets in M82 where it only really added something, although i do think it was worth it in the end. 

Here's the capture details:

9x 600s RGB (2" IDAS-D1)

7 x 1200s Ha (2" 7nm Baader)

30 Flats, 50 Bias, dithered aggressively every frame

Stacked in APP, Processed in PS (i used the Ha data for the Red channel in the RGB image). 

SW80ED, HEQ5-Pro. 

It's obviously light on exposure, i would ideally have liked at least 3 hrs of RGB, but beggars can't be choosers i suppose, so i'm calling this one done and moving on 

I haven't done much RGB or galaxy imaging, so C&C welcome as always guys. 

[Hayduke27]

I LOVE these galaxies, and this is a wonderful image.  Thanks for sharing.

[Petergoodhew]

Impressive capture, all the more so given that the moon was up.  I wouldn't have even attempted this.  Well done.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Very nice work!

[Xiga]

10 hours ago, Hayduke27 said:

I LOVE these galaxies, and this is a wonderful image.  Thanks for sharing.

 

6 hours ago, Petergoodhew said:

Impressive capture, all the more so given that the moon was up.  I wouldn't have even attempted this.  Well done.

 

4 hours ago, michael.h.f.wilkinson said:

Very nice work!

Thanks guys!  

I actually quite enjoyed processing this one. Certainly much easier than dealing with a screen full of nebulosity for a change! lol

[tooth_dr]

Very nice Ciaran. It was just too windy here as I was set up for the 10” scope, limited to some spectroscopy at the minute. 

[Xiga]

6 hours ago, tooth_dr said:

Very nice Ciaran. It was just too windy here as I was set up for the 10” scope, limited to some spectroscopy at the minute. 

Thanks Adam.

Have you done much DSO work with the big 300mm scope? I'm sure it catches every small gust of wind compared to the wee 80mm 

[tooth_dr]

On ‎06‎/‎02‎/‎2018 at 20:07, Xiga said:

Thanks Adam.

Have you done much DSO work with the big 300mm scope? I'm sure it catches every small gust of wind compared to the wee 80mm 

I have a 250mm scope that I use for imaging. I haven't tried out the 300mm yet but I would love to give it a go on some galaxies in the future.  I had a go at M81 et al past couple of moon light nights, amassed a fair bit of data, still doesn't look like much.