My First M101

[gaelicstorm7]

Hi all,

Managed to have my first crack at M101 last night (eventually when it got dark ) , 6 x 2min exposures at 1600 asa Megrez/EQ5/350D with VH-1 & CLS filter, quite pleased with it for a first attempt

Alan.

Comments as allways welcome.

[CELESCOPE]

Good start Al . for a very hard object, thi is one beast to image , but you have some centre detail there, nice image ,

Rog

[Kain]

Wow thats looks great! I wounder if I would be able to see that?

Kain

[russ]

Thats a good first stab at M101 and as Rog says, it a little blighter to see or image. Unless you go to Kelling that is, then it stands out like a sore thumb in the scope.

Have you considered using the Baader Neodymium filter? The reason i ask is I own both the Baader and the CLS but I find the CLS to severe for exposures of 2mins or below. Really cuts down the amount of light reaching the chip and light is pretty thin on the ground with these type of objects. Where as the Baader is far more gentle, letting far more light in but keeping out the LP. It also has a far nicer colour balance, almost completely natural. Needs almost no colour correction. Where as the CLS gives a very strong green tinge to the image. The Baader works brilliantly upto 1.5mins and then starts to tail off. I find i never use the CLS because i'm shooting with an unguided mount so the exposures are never longer than 2 mins, mostly 1.5mins.

Oh and the Baader is dirt cheap, so well worth a try and sell it if doesn't work out. I would sell my CLS before the Baader.

Anyway just a thought.

Regards

Russ

[MartinB]

Nice work Alan. I can confirm the difficulty seperating the galaxy detail for sky illumination!

[geppetto]

Skillfully done 8)

Very nice

[OXO]

Thats a good un lots of detail in the Arms

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

Cracking picture, looking good.

Captain Chaos

[FLO]

Wow thats looks great! I wounder if I would be able to see that?

In short ... Yes

However, with your current 4" scope and summer skies that never get totally dark, M101 will look like a fuzzy star.

The 8" Dobsonian you are planning to buy will do a much better job

[GordonCopestake]

Steve, what software do you use to show eyepiece projection on objects?

[FLO]

Steve, what software do you use to show eyepiece projection on objects?

StarryNight V4.5 Pro (I think all the Pro versions will display ep FOV?).

To post the pic, copy it by holding down the Alt key and pressing the Print Screen/System Request key. Then, paste it onto a new file in Photoshop, save it as a JPEG then post in the normal way.

Steve