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Messier 81 and 82 panorama

Barry-Wilson

By Barry-Wilson
in Imaging - Deep Sky

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Barry-Wilson

Barry-Wilson

Posted
Posted

The completed two pane mosaic of this often imaged galactic pair. The combination of the TEC140 and QSI690 has enabled such fine detail to be teased out with a very rewarding result that has taken two day's worth of processing in total, circa 16 hours of concentration. I finished last night at midnight and have aching eyes this morning, then some much needed objective feedback from my imaging partner Steve Milne gave me the boost to complete the final tweaks and balancing of brightness, colour, and depth between the two panes. Thanks Steve.

Hints of IFN swirl around the pair and I have enedavoured to make them visible but faint in an effort to represent their relative apparent brightness. I worked hard with multiple masks to highlight the spiralling dust in the arms of M81, gentle application of PI's LHE tool without it becoming overly artificial (I hope).

Please enjoy the image at high resolution.

Data acquisition: Barry Wilson & Steve Milne
Processing: Barry Wilson

Details:

  • TEC140 at F7
  • QSI690wsg-8 with Astrodon filters
  • 10 Micron GM2000HPS II UP
  • Ha 48 x 1200s; Lum 96 x 600s; RGB 48 x 600s each channel; 56 hours total integration
  • e-Eye, Spain at our jointly owned and operated remote observatory.

M82_M81_mosaic_enh_alt.thumb.jpg.2ca3ccb4126a692a71c6ccb6c22cde6d.jpg

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Louis D

Louis D

Posted
Posted

At first, I was like, how did you get such stable seeing in the UK?  Then I saw that you have a remote Spanish observatory.  I'm guessing Spain's seeing is similar to the US's desert Southwest.  Regardless, spectacular image.

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Barry-Wilson

Barry-Wilson

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1 hour ago, vlaiv said:

Just love that Ha arc of the side of M82!

It's rarely seen in images.

Holmberg IX also shows nice granulation - it's not just a dark smudge.

This image goes deep indeed!

Thank you vlaiv.  That arc and cap are something special, I agree. Small pixels, big chunk of glass, time and dark skies I guess.

1 hour ago, DirkSteele said:

Superb!

 

Much appreciated Matthew.  For your own speciality, I just managed to pick up a 9 year old APM Lomo 80/480 with 2" FT focuser in good condition, thoroughly enjoyed the moon last night until the mist rolled in at 9pm.  I have Baader Hyperion eypieces but I suppose I ought to treat myself to something better.

1 hour ago, Louis D said:

At first, I was like, how did you get such stable seeing in the UK?  Then I saw that you have a remote Spanish observatory.  I'm guessing Spain's seeing is similar to the US's desert Southwest.  Regardless, spectacular image.

Undoubtedly the combination of dark skies and more clear nights helps.  We Brits do love to whinge about our weather (you may have noticed ?) but we do have some productive spells.

1 hour ago, wimvb said:

Excellent image, Barry. You got the IFN exactly where it should be: visible but very subtle.

Thanks Wim.  The IFN was a secondary or even tertiary goal - it was all about the depth in the galaxies.  To think we almost decided against completing the two panels.

1 hour ago, tooth_dr said:

Incredibly beautiful Barry. Would look well hung in any household. 

Aahhmm . . . I've never had such a compliment before . . . . ?.

53 minutes ago, PhotoGav said:

Barry, this is exquisite. Your best image yet, imho. Chapeau! ? or should that be: ? !

Ha, ha, Gav.  You may well be right.  Certainly tamer than the HH & Flame ??.

47 minutes ago, Craney said:

Crikey....   more tea Vicar !!.... ;)

touché ? ?.

39 minutes ago, Davey-T said:

A masterpiece Barry, well worth all the effort, full size is awesome, wish I had a bigger screen to view it on.

Good to see the expense of remote imaging paying off.

Dave

We are both pleased.  I did take a massive gulp or two last year when the offer from Thomas Acker arose.  I thought I'm working now & for a decade yet before retirment, so what better time to fund it and take the plunge.

Thanks everyone for your generous comments, CS ?

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gorann

gorann

Posted
Posted

As I just said on Astrobin: Really splendid! And keeping the IFN down to a level that it deserves was a very good idea. A hint of it is all we need. With 56 hours I assume you could have made the image look like milk with all the IFN you must have picked up.

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Xiga

Xiga

Posted
Posted
8 hours ago, Barry-Wilson said:

The completed two pane mosaic of this often imaged galactic pair. The combination of the TEC140 and QSI690 has enabled such fine detail to be teased out with a very rewarding result that has taken two day's worth of processing in total, circa 16 hours of concentration. I finished last night at midnight and have aching eyes this morning, then some much needed objective feedback from my imaging partner Steve Milne gave me the boost to complete the final tweaks and balancing of brightness, colour, and depth between the two panes. Thanks Steve.

Hints of IFN swirl around the pair and I have enedavoured to make them visible but faint in an effort to represent their relative apparent brightness. I worked hard with multiple masks to highlight the spiralling dust in the arms of M81, gentle application of PI's LHE tool without it becoming overly artificial (I hope).

Please enjoy the image at high resolution.

Data acquisition: Barry Wilson & Steve Milne
Processing: Barry Wilson

Details:

  • TEC140 at F7
  • QSI690wsg-8 with Astrodon filters
  • 10 Micron GM2000HPS II UP
  • Ha 48 x 1200s; Lum 96 x 600s; RGB 48 x 600s each channel; 56 hours total integration
  • e-Eye, Spain at our jointly owned and operated remote observatory.

M82_M81_mosaic_enh_alt.thumb.jpg.2ca3ccb4126a692a71c6ccb6c22cde6d.jpg

Are we allowed to curse on SGL?

$#@& me that's good! 

If anyone is currently looking at this on their mobile (as i did earlier today) then know this - you NEED to see this one on a monitor at 100%. I just did, and i'm still picking my jaw up from the floor. 

The detail in M81 is INSANE. And those Ha jets (and cap) in M82 are something else!

A particular favourite is this little white 'shockwave'(?) just beyond the Ha jet in M82. I've never seen that before:

Shockwave.jpg.2530794e3ac5fb0b819b7c04f0c04fcc.jpg

This is the best M81-M82 image i think i've ever seen, 

ps - One piece of feedback if you don't mind - do the stars have an ever-so-slight pink core? I've never used P.I myself, but i've heard that Arcsinh stretching can cause pink star cores? 

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wimvb

wimvb

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Posted
20 minutes ago, Xiga said:

but i've heard that Arcsinh stretching can cause pink star cores

It's common in pixinsight to get miscoloured cores if you use masked stretch or arcsinh stretch. The remedy is to use the hsv repair script before stretching. The cores are a result from the colour calibration routines, I believe. Normal stretching isn't affected by it, because the cores will be saturated by the stretch.

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Barry-Wilson

Barry-Wilson

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19 hours ago, gorann said:

PS. Now when I zoom in on it, the resolution of M81 is incredible - looks like an M31 image!

Much appreciated Goran.

8 hours ago, Seanelly said:

A mesmerizing photo! 

Thanks Sean.

 

31 minutes ago, ollypenrice said:

That's a tremendous image and beautifully balanced so as to have an entirely unforced and natural look. Super.

BTW I sometimes get pinkish stellar cores in Ps as well.

Olly

Higgh praise Olly and very much appreciated from your wealth of experience.

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Barry-Wilson

Barry-Wilson

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I have carefully looked at my M81/82 pairing I imaged from Totnes a couple of years ago - you can see the pale shockwave/arc above M82 if you pixel peek at high resolution and with only a relatively modest integration, so some hope for UK imagers if you are lucky enough and located with a dark sky:

get.jpg?insecure

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tomato

tomato

Posted
Posted

It’s a superb result, so much detail and exquisite colours.

And thanks for posting the earlier image from your UK location, that is a mighty fine image also and clearly shows what can be achieved from a dark UK location. 

I have always thought remote imaging is not for me but my resolve is weakening every time you  post an image taken from e-Eye. I will have to see what’s possible first when the retirement observatory is up and running.

And 16 hours processing time! I was kind of hoping quality data would mean spending less time in front of the monitor. I am hoping you can tell me that something like the 80/20 rule applies here, ie you get 80% of the desired outcome from 20% of the time spent processing? I can spend quite a few hours on my data but that is trying to tease out some detail from the noise...

 

 

 

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PhotoGav

PhotoGav

Posted
Posted

Barry, that is very interesting indeed to see your UK version for comparison. It renews my hope for UK skies. It’s a lovely image, but the new Spanish version is significantly improved. However, the Spanish image is 56 hours of total integration compared to 8.5 hours of UK time. I wonder... is the only actual advantage of your Spanish sky the higher number of clear nights? Please say yes, whatever the real answer is!!!

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x6gas

x6gas

Posted
Posted

Fantastically detailed image Barry - simply wonderful.

I must confess that the colour of the galaxies is a bit too vivid for me and that - to my eye - makes them a tad unnatural (I actually prefer the colours in your UK version).  I'm clearly in the minority, though. 

In any case, it's a tremendous image.  Have a cookie...?

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