Bode's Galaxy - 21hrs LRGB

[Mr_42tr0nomy]

Greetings!

Last night I finally finished my new project! This is Bode's Galaxy or Messier 81. This galaxy is actually pretty close in relative terms. It lies about 12 million light years away towards the constellation Ursa Major. I was really able to pull out some nice detail thanks to our new dark skies. Despite the darker skies, I still had to take flats for my RGB data which consisted of 2hrs each. getting an accurately colored image was difficult for some reason.. I would have thought 2 hours each channel would be more than enough. Maybe 4 hours would have done the trick. Anyways, I'm pretty happy with these results
This is a total of 21 hours of exposure time from our backyard 8,600ft up in the Rocky Mountains

Astro-Tech 8RC
Atik 414ec CCD
iOptron CEM60
Astrodon LRGB filters
84x15m exposures

 

Hope you guys like it!

 

 

[tooth_dr]

That is something else!  poster perfect image.  Thanks for sharing.

[Mr_42tr0nomy]

25 minutes ago, tooth_dr said:

That is something else!  poster perfect image.  Thanks for sharing.

Thank your sir! 

[Grant]

Stunning! It's nice to see such a closeup shot of this target - used to seeing it with M82. The extra detail is really impressive!

[carastro]

Fabulous image.

[Vixen4eva]

Wow!!!!!!

Regards

Alan

[groberts]

When you posted the 15hr Luminance image I said I was looking forwards to the finished article and it's not disappointing, in fact it is wonderful.  Very well done, that's a beauty.

Graham

 

[Spikey]

Great, dedicated capture and very nicely processed. I know how tricky this one can be to control the core.

[Mr_42tr0nomy]

49 minutes ago, groberts said:

When you posted the 15hr Luminance image I said I was looking forwards to the finished article and it's not disappointing, in fact it is wonderful.  Very well done, that's a beauty.

Graham

 

Thank you! I’m glad you like it! The stars were giving me trouble (as always). There’s definitely room for improvement:)

[Mr_42tr0nomy]

36 minutes ago, Spikey said:

Great, dedicated capture and very nicely processed. I know how tricky this one can be to control the core.

The core wasnt as difficult as my bloated stars.. I think 900s subs may have been too long. 300 may be the perfect balance for detail and sharp stars. 

[MartinB]

Wonderful image but I had to tone down the colour saturation to fully enjoy, purely personal taste though.

[ollypenrice]

Really cracking image but Martin has a point, particularly since the image is close up and 'in your face.' Colour saturation is neither here nor there, really, in the sense that it's a one-slider adjustment and personal anyway. Super image.

You seem surprised by colour gradients and so was I when I started. Ours is a site which can hit SQM22 so where do they come from? I've stopped asking because I have no idea, but they are almost always there. Although I greatly prefer Photoshop for most things I run Pixinsight's DBE on colour pretty much without exception. Also SCNR green. Why does green come out too strongly? Not a clue! Again, I've stopped asking.

Anyway, bravo!

Olly

[MartinFransson]

Wow! Don´t think I´ve ever seen such a close up version of this beauty. How about a mosaic to get M82 in the shot? How many frames would that be? ??

[Mr_42tr0nomy]

17 minutes ago, ollypenrice said:

Really cracking image but Martin has a point, particularly since the image is close up and 'in your face.' Colour saturation is neither here nor there, really, in the sense that it's a one-slider adjustment and personal anyway. Super image.

You seem surprised by colour gradients and so was I when I started. Ours is a site which can hit SQM22 so where do they come from? I've stopped asking because I have no idea, but they are almost always there. Although I greatly prefer Photoshop for most things I run Pixinsight's DBE on colour pretty much without exception. Also SCNR green. Why does green come out too strongly? Not a clue! Again, I've stopped asking.

Anyway, bravo!

Olly

I toyed with the idea of desaturation a tad, I agree a little movement left of the slider would have helped ;). SCNR green worked wonderfully but the initial RGB combine was very dull and lacked any sort of color. It’s a mystery as to how I achieved what I did. 

[Mr_42tr0nomy]

17 minutes ago, MartinFransson said:

Wow! Don´t think I´ve ever seen such a close up version of this beauty. How about a mosaic to get M82 in the shot? How many frames would that be? ??

Man. I’m not sure but it may be worth the try ??

[ollypenrice]

24 minutes ago, Mr_42tr0nomy said:

I toyed with the idea of desaturation a tad, I agree a little movement left of the slider would have helped ;). SCNR green worked wonderfully but the initial RGB combine was very dull and lacked any sort of color. It’s a mystery as to how I achieved what I did. 

Lack of colour in RGB data is commonplace. Often the addition of strong and highly stretched lum makes it even worse. Processing in Ps I have various ways of boosting the colour but what I don't do is use the Saturation slider until I absolutely have to. However you did it - you did it. It can be a good idea to take notes...

Olly

[Mr_42tr0nomy]

1 hour ago, ollypenrice said:

Lack of colour in RGB data is commonplace. Often the addition of strong and highly stretched lum makes it even worse. Processing in Ps I have various ways of boosting the colour but what I don't do is use the Saturation slider until I absolutely have to. However you did it - you did it. It can be a good idea to take notes...

Olly

funny thing is, I usually DO take notes! I didnt think that my first go at it would be successful haha.  Oh well, always more to learn

[tomato]

That’s a stunning result, as already commented it’s not often you see Bode’s galaxy filling the FOV, but you have done it proud with this one.?

[Mr_42tr0nomy]

6 hours ago, tomato said:

That’s a stunning result, as already commented it’s not often you see Bode’s galaxy filling the FOV, but you have done it proud with this one.?

Thank you very much, I really appreciate that!

[wimvb]

On 17/12/2018 at 20:41, Mr_42tr0nomy said:

It’s a mystery as to how I achieved what I did. 

Wonderful image!

As to your mystery; if you did the processing entirely in PixInsight, you have the full history, including all process settings available. Assuming you saved the project, of course.

[mikey2000]

I was surprised to see such an amazingly close up close-up!   Well worth the effort (and looking forward to future images!).  For what it's worth, maybe I'd tone down the magenta in the final result.  Is that an Ha overboost artifact?

 

The dust lanes look brilliant - i wonder how big they are in real life? Many many light years, I expect....

 

I love space!  I don't like clouds.  Well, clouds are ok but they aren't exactly space, are they?

[Mr_42tr0nomy]

1 hour ago, mikey2000 said:

I was surprised to see such an amazingly close up close-up!   Well worth the effort (and looking forward to future images!).  For what it's worth, maybe I'd tone down the magenta in the final result.  Is that an Ha overboost artifact?

 

The dust lanes look brilliant - i wonder how big they are in real life? Many many light years, I expect....

 

I love space!  I don't like clouds.  Well, clouds are ok but they aren't exactly space, are they?

I didn’t end up grabbing any Ha data on this one but I did want the Ha regions to pop. 

[MikeODay]

Wonderful image; you must be very pleased with it.

[Mr_42tr0nomy]

3 hours ago, MikeODay said:

Wonderful image; you must be very pleased with it.

Thank you! I am above pleased. Excited to see how my next galactic RGB image turns out under these dark skies

[gorann]

I missed this post first but now I have seen it and can only agree with all the rest of the SGL choir and join them in a resounding Wow! Never seen it that close up I think.