Bode's Galaxy and Cigar galaxy

[Altais]

Hello everyone.

Here is an image of M81 and M82 that I just completed.

This is a combination of some data I captured three years ago and some that I captured a few days ago. Roughly 5 hours for each data set, so a bit less than 10 hours in total. The old data consists of 6-minute exposures with a quite dark sky, while the new subframes are 3 minutes and with more light pollution.

I use a full-spectrum modded Canon EOS 1100D, and ideally I should use a UV/IR blocking filter to get correct colours. For the old frames I did not do that since I couldn't get a sharp image with the filter. This time around I got it to work with the filter (it seems that it it simply becomes more sensitive to slightly incorrect focus). So to exploit the best of each data set I created a luminance image from all the subs, then processed only the new frames with better colour as RGB and then merged them using LRGB combination.

I'm quite happy with the result, although the background is a bit messy and I might have overdone it slightly with the noise reduction. I think the background is quite tricky, since it is hard to judge what is real signal due to the IFN and what is just unwanted unevenness.

Comments and suggestions are appreciated.

Clear skies,
Lars

[Miguel1983]

Wow, nice work Lars !

I presume you used the 150PDS for this image ?

Keep it up !

[Altais]

Thanks Miguel!

That's right. The original field of view was quite a bit larger than the image suggests, but the overlap between the two data sets was not perfect. :)

[ashortfallofgravitas]

Hi Lars! Amazing picture. Did you use a coma corrector in this setup?

 

Currently shopping for a 150PDS and have been recommended both the Baader MPCC and SW F4 Quattro cc by different people - shooting with a DSLR

[Altais]

17 hours ago, ashortfallofgravitas said:

Hi Lars! Amazing picture. Did you use a coma corrector in this setup?

 

Currently shopping for a 150PDS and have been recommended both the Baader MPCC and SW F4 Quattro cc by different people - shooting with a DSLR

Thank you!

Yes, I use the Baader MPCC III. I get very noticeable coma without it, so a coma corrector is definitely a very worthwhile accessory, at least if you want to be able to use most of the field of view. I cannot comment on how the SW is compared to the Baader, as I've only tried the Baader. But I'm very happy with the Baader and I think it works really well.