M81 & M82 with GEM45 unguided.

[The Admiral]

I'm just starting to get to grips with my new iOptron GEM45 EQ mount, having spent some time cutting my teeth in astro-imaging using an Nexstar Alt-Az mount. Very much an EQ virgin!

I decided to image M81 & M82 as these were inaccessible with my old Nexstar, so it was new territory for me. I used my Altair Wave 104 f/7 ED triplet scope, Photoline 0.79x reducer and Fuji X-T1 (effective FL 560mm). ISO400. 60 x 90s lights and flats. I did take 20 darks but I found that using some old bias frames from an earlier session gave a better result. Stacked in AstroArt 6, processed in StarTools v1.6.393 RC2, and polished in Lightroom. I've yet to get to grips with this latest version of ST, so for this image I haven't used the full gamut of controls. I like to get as much detail as I can from my images, I don't do subtle! Fans of a naturalistic look may not approve .

At about the 9 o'clock position there is a small blue 'smudge', enlarged here. It does unfortunately reveal some trouble with my stars!

I had originally thought that this was NGC 2976, but Astronet shows that galaxy to be too far away. Anyone any idea?

Thanks for looking.

Ian

Edited April 19, 2020 by The Admiral

[Paul M]

Lovely picture. 

With a combination of sky safari and Google I think your mystery object is UGC 5302.

Mag 15.1.

http://www.zorya.co/object/21295

Edited April 19, 2020 by Paul M

[MarkAR]

Looks great.

[Rocket Stars]

Great shot!! 

[Paul M]

Looks like PGC 28731 showing there too, mag 15.6:

http://server7.sky-map.org/starview?object_type=2&object_id=8973

 

[The Admiral]

Thanks all.

2 hours ago, Paul M said:

With a combination of sky safari and Google I think your mystery object is UGC 5302.

Yup that's it Paul, thanks.

58 minutes ago, Paul M said:

Looks like PGC 28731 showing there too

I'll take your word for that, I'm still trying to locate it .

Ian