M101 OSC

[tomato]

Here is 132 x 2 mins on M101 captured with the Esprit 150/IMX571/QHY268c dual rig. There are a couple of things I need to put right, I used the 268 in DSO mode (Gain 30, offset 30) but calibrated with darks taken in high gain mode. APP gave me some polite warnings that all was not well, but carried on so I thought I would see how it turned out. The second issue was me being impatient to start the run I began with M101 at only 30 degrees elevation so guiding was poor and the subs were nowhere near the quality of those captured later in the night when the galaxy was at +40 degrees. Hopefully I can get a few more hours data tonight and rectify both of these faults.

Calibrated and stacked in APP, processed in APP, PI and AP. I used the Starnetv2 to separate out the stars, seemed to give  slightly better  results than StarXTerminator.

Thanks for looking.

[teoria_del_big_bang]

That is a very nice image and the makings of a great image with a bit more data 🙂 
The Esprit 150 really comes into its own with smaller targets like this, my 100ED needs a very heavy crop on this target.

That's one hell of an imaging rig you have 🙂 

Steve

[tomato]

Thanks, I was surprised how much of the FOV it takes up with this set up. I will need a 4 or 6 panel mosaic if I put the ASI 178s on!

[tomato]

Now with an extra 88 mins of data, but still needs more I reckon, to improve the outer spiral arms and clean up the background.