M81 / M82 + modded 450D first light

[imakebeer]

I haven't posted in ages as life and work keep getting in the way (along with clouds and nightfall coming later and later!)

Since I started back in October 2022 I've been using a Nikon D5500 but during my early enthusiasm I picked up a used Canon 450D from eBay, which I finally sent away for astro-modification a couple of months ago.

These pics are from 2nd April 2023 - I decided to stick with something "known" and "easy" (hah!) for the first test drive of the 450D. Capturing was striaghtforward enough but I've been playing when time allows, continuing to improve my post processing skills.

I had already discovered Starnet, and the new beta of Siril not only uses this to remove the stars but gives you a star mask too.

I'd already started playing with layers and masks in GIMP but inspired by some Doug German post-processing videos on YouTube (he uses PS, not GIMP) I've been playing with smarter(?) ways to recombine layers to control the stars, and also reduce noise and light casts (?) in the farfield - rather than just using layer masks and playing with the opacity of the star layer I've also been playing with the Layers "Mode", experimenting with different ways of bringing the layers together.

Anyhoo.....

SW150PDS + HEQ5
Modded Canon 450D + SW coma corrector
150 x 60s lights @ ISO 400 + 20 each darks, biases & flats
Siril, Starnet and GIMP

Compared with my previous (and only) attempt at M81/M82 (02/03/2023) I feel it's improved - I think I've done a better job of controlling noise in the farfield and I feel like I'm bringing out more of the detail of the "tiny" stars in M81.

The first image is what I got out of GIMP. The second image is the same but I ran it through Neat Image v9 to reduce noise (automatic/default settings). It's done an OK job but lost some of the detail (tiny/faint stars in particular) so I'm not sure it's better. Somehow, somewhere I need to pony up and pay for a better NR software (I trialled Topaz DeNoise AI which did a better job I think).

GIMP Image

GIMP + Neat Image v9 (noise reduced)