M81/M82 with IFN

[mackiedlm]

I imaged this area about a year ago with my 80ED but was never that happy with the result. So I gave it a go this year with my 61 EDPHii.

This is 6 hours of 180s subs with the ASI2600mc and the L-pro filter

 

 

[Catanonia]

Really nice and you got a good amount of the IFN there is a large FOV. It really shows the extend of the IFN in this region   

Love the colours too, not over done which is nice.

Did you image the galaxies separately or were they in the same subs ?

Very nice. 

Edited February 27, 2023 by Catanonia

[alan potts]

That's a rather lovely image, love all the dust and some nice detail in there too.

Alan

[mackiedlm]

1 hour ago, Catanonia said:

Really nice and you got a good amount of the IFN there is a large FOV. It really shows the extend of the IFN in this region   

Love the colours too, not over done which is nice.

Did you image the galaxies separately or were they in the same subs ?

Very nice. 

Thanks for that. No, not imaged separately, just one set of subs and very careful masking. I have a set of subs taken at a higher FL with better detail in the galaxies and I'm thinking i may try to graft them into this.

[callisto]

Loving this image 

[Fegato]

Very nice!  I've just shot an 8 panel mosaic with M81/2 in the bottom left corner, aiming to catch the full extent of LBN683 (a huge area of IFN). I'll be very pleased if I can keep the galaxies down as well as you have - any tips gratefully accepted! 

[mackiedlm]

1 hour ago, Fegato said:

Very nice!  I've just shot an 8 panel mosaic with M81/2 in the bottom left corner, aiming to catch the full extent of LBN683 (a huge area of IFN). I'll be very pleased if I can keep the galaxies down as well as you have - any tips gratefully accepted! 

Thanks Robin. So it was really all about careful masking. I used PI's game script to produce the initial Gradient edge mask then trial and error with HT and convolution on the mask to get something that preserved the galaxies without producing artifacts at their edges. I also made the mistake of not including the two smaller galaxies NGC2976 and NGC3077 in my initial masks. And i did not keep an eye on them as the processing continued until, at the end, they were totally blown out and stood out like sore thumbs 😂. So I had to basically go back and start again!

Good luck, I look forward to seeing your mosaic - are you doing it with the RASA? That will be brilliant.

[Fegato]

Thanks that's really useful. I will try and be patient...  it's so easy to blast on to the end and then decide you have to start all over!!

Yes, with the RASA - so it's a fairly huge 8 x 6 degree sort of scale. We'll see, I've not always been happy with 4 panel mosaics, and I've not gone bigger than that before. I just thought I would, as there are less of the larger targets around in the early hours now. I thought it might keep me going for a few weeks, but I managed to get all the data in three nights flat!  I'll post the result anyway.

 

 

 

[Radec]

Absolutely amazing image - what an incredible fov. Love it!