M81,82 and IFN - a long story

[MartinB]

About 12 years ago I enjoyed a wonderful holiday with @ollipenrice at Lesgranges.  I got around 10  hours of data on M81/82 using a supersensitive QSI 532 camera and a Tak FSQ106 reduced to F3.6 in a hunt for the elusive IFN.  At the time IFN was a very new challenge for imagers.  My set up was sensitive but at the expense of major microlensing artefacts when the data was pushed.  So the IFN was captured and Olly was able to add a little colour data.  Some years later I got a big bundle of colour data and tried another process.  I didn't push things as hard and produced what I thought at the time was a reasonable image but with subdued IFN.  

Recently I thought I would have another go using the latest star removing tools.  Starnet 2 did a better job that StarXterminator but I think the latest iteration of StarXterminator has eliminated some of the issues I experenced.

Unfortunately I couldn't match up my colour data very well for one reason or another but I think that I can now, finally present the IFN that was hiding there all along

 

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The first image is the latest iteration, the second is from 2016 and the 3rd is the original from 2010

[ollypenrice]

Gosh, that takes me back and, yes, I think you have it, by Gad! 

I wonder if the village had started turning off its lights at 11.00 pm when you were here? My own IFN was done before this and, in reality, it makes little tangible difference.

De-starring has to be the way to go on this target. Your result is lovely. I've only run the new StarXterminator once but it does seem even better.

Olly

[MartinB]

54 minutes ago, ollypenrice said:

Gosh, that takes me back and, yes, I think you have it, by Gad! 

I wonder if the village had started turning off its lights at 11.00 pm when you were here? My own IFN was done before this and, in reality, it makes little tangible difference.

De-starring has to be the way to go on this target. Your result is lovely. I've only run the new StarXterminator once but it does seem even better.

Olly

The lights weren't being switched of at the time Olly but they were cowled.  I put in a CLS filter towards the end of the run when the scope was pointing above the village, that worked well.