Bodes Galaxy M81

[Star101]

From WiKi- 

Messier 81 (also known as NGC 3031 or Bode's Galaxy) is a spiral galaxy about 12 million light-years away, with a diameter of 90,000 light years, about half the size of the Milky Way, in the constellation Ursa Major. Due to its proximity to Earth, large size, and active galactic nucleus (which harbors supermassive black hole), Messier 81 has been studied extensively by professional astronomers. The galaxy's large size and relatively high brightness also makes it a popular target for amateur astronomers.

Taken with a very bright moon shining in a very hazy sky.

9 x 600s and 11 x 300s Lights

Master Darks/Flats/Bias

C11 with Celestron FR. Atik 4129EX OSC  camera on a Mesu 200 mount.

Collected using SGPro and Processed using PixInsight.

Thanks for looking.

Dave

[wimvb]

Good catch under those conditions. You may be able to squeeze a little more out of your data with deconvolution and star reduction. 

[Star101]

Deconvolution and a few tweaks.

M81 take 2 

 

[GiorgioF]

Uhm.... Nice, really nice catch but I see you are running on my same issue: deconvolution.

I'm still fighting with this and I found that it is really aggressive process.

What I understand is the background has to be well protected with a nicely done mask. This to avoid the generation of artefact and noises on it.

Moreover, a star mask and deringing will greately improve the stars.

Please accept this words, maybe looking rude, as a merely sharing of my experience.

[Star101]

Thanks GiorgioF.

I will leave it for now. I just had the urge to image M81 for a few weeks now. I knew last night was not a great night, with the moon so bright, but I still went ahead.

I will image again when we have clear DARK skies

[wimvb]

1 hour ago, GiorgioF said:

Uhm.... Nice, really nice catch but I see you are running on my same issue: deconvolution

I have to agree. For deconvolution to work, you need to have a good signal to noise ratio. It can work without a mask, but it's a lot easier with. If you increase the regularisation (nr of layers and strength/layer) you can push deconvolution to target stars only. This is one way to reduce stars before stretching.

On this image, I would mainly use it to do just that. More data under more favourable conditions is the best way to improve the galaxy.