M81 and M82 under 77% illuminated moon

[cfinn]

This is 2.5 hours (50 x 180s subs) with my SW Esprit 120ED and unmodified Nikon D5300 under a 77% illuminated moon last night! Processed using Astro Pixel Processor with 50 x flat and bias frames. I didn’t bother with darks, just dithered 10 pixels after each exposure, which was very straightforward in Ekos.

All things considered, I’m quite happy with how it has turned out. I would have preferred a moonless clear night but I can’t remember the last time we had one of those! Feedback very much welcomed.

Charles

[Saganite]

A lovely image of a pair of favourites !

[tooth_dr]

A really good job.  The stars are really great, with lots of colour down to the centre.  A really delicate touch overall with the processing.  That Nikon is a really dark horse, and is used very successfully by other members on here too.  The only really minor thing I can say is that the overall colour of the galaxies is a little pale, but that could be easily fixed.

 

 

Edited January 24, 2021 by tooth_dr

[cfinn]

Many thanks! I might take it into Gimp or Photoshop to see what I can do with the colours.

[Stargazer33]

Very nice Charles!

I was going to say it looks a bit green and was going to suggest HLVG. Then I realised that I had the blue light filter turned on in my tablets settings! 🤪🙄🤫

So, very nice image Charles, no suggestions. 🙂

[AstroNtinos]

Perfect image. I really love it. Thanks for sharing it.

[peter shah]

beautifully done Charles super detail

[cfinn]

Thanks all! 🙂

[geeklee]

14 hours ago, cfinn said:

Feedback very much welcomed.

That's come out great Charles.  Lovely fine detail showing in M82 (and M81) and as mentioned already, really light touch on the processing.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Very  nice indeed! lots of detail in that image

[mackiedlm]

Thats a really lovely image especially given the conditions and integration time. The level of detail is excellent.

[MartinB]

That is a great image.  Yes, the colour is pretty muted but I would rather see it like this rather than it be crudely saturated with associated colour noise.  Definitely worth trying to up the colour but look out for any noise creaping in.

[cfinn]

37 minutes ago, MartinB said:

That is a great image.  Yes, the colour is pretty muted but I would rather see it like this rather than it be crudely saturated with associated colour noise.  Definitely worth trying to up the colour but look out for any noise creaping in.

Thanks for the advice. I definitely don’t want to push it too much given the integration time. Hopefully I can add some more data later in the spring. Fingers crossed we have some more luck with the weather soon!

[tomato]

Some great detail captured, not easy with a big moon out. I agree that pushing the saturation would detract from the image, best to get some more data but all of our clear nights of late seem to coincide with the moon being around.