First Galaxies M81/82 & M101

[Alestrom]

Hi everyone

I have been attempting some more imaging intermittently when work/the weather allows. These are my first galaxies, obviously they can't hold a candle to most of the images on here but I thought I would share them anyway...

M101 10 x 60 seconds at ISO1600, through Skywatcher 6 inch.

M81/82 5 x 30 seconds at ISO800, through Sigma lens at 300mm.

I think another wide-field attempt on M81/82 will bear fruit as I am quite pleased with this one, there are two smaller galaxies NGC 3077 and 2976 visible to the lower left and upper right respectively. However with the M101 I am already pushing the unguided limit of my equpment as I wanted to do two minutes but had to scale down as the trailing was just two bad, even at one minute I had to discard 5 out of 15 subs and as you can see the stars are pretty rugby ball-esque...

I think my next project will be to try and guide through the scope with the Sigma lens doing the imaging, does this sound like a good plan?

Cheers everyone and hope you have some clear skies over the Easter weekend.

[johnrt]

Really nice pair of images there.

Do you have the skywatcher 150p? I have been imaging with this scope and a 1000d but have found that the focuser tube is sticking out into the body of the scope causing stars with bits nibbled out.

Your image has no trace of this effect. Have you come across this problem at all?

[Alestrom]

Hmmm. No I never have. My scope is the 150p, the 750mm focal length version.

Is yours the p or the pl (longer focal length)? Another possible difference is that I have the older version (the blue one), I know the focusser is different on the new black and white models, if you have one of those then maybe that is causing the problem?

I think if I de-focus then I can see the focuser tube cutting into the star disk (from memory anyway), are you sure you've got the focus correct?

[zedds]

Really nice images. When i eventually get onto long exposures and DSO`s i hope mine are as good.

[johnrt]

Hmmm. No I never have. My scope is the 150p, the 750mm focal length version.

Is yours the p or the pl (longer focal length)? Another possible difference is that I have the older version (the blue one), I know the focusser is different on the new black and white models, if you have one of those then maybe that is causing the problem?

I think if I de-focus then I can see the focuser tube cutting into the star disk (from memory anyway), are you sure you've got the focus correct?

Mine is the 150p, but I have the newer version with the upgraded focuser. Interestingly when I come to focus I can't see the tube cutting in to the star disk, only in the final image.

[Demonperformer]

Hi - great pictures.

I'm particularly interested to see M101, as I have not managed to capture any galaxies yet, and it is good to see what can be got with a 6" instrument. Having just bought a DSLR, this is definitely going to be one of my targets in coming months.

Thanks for sharing

[Alestrom]

Thanks everyone

The aperture is not really the limiting factor at all, I believe people image similar targets and fainter with small refractors. The focal ratio is the key here, the faster the scope the more you can capture with the same length exposure.

The problem is the tracking, the mount makes all the difference and I will probably get a HEQ5 or similar (when I can afford it!) and start guiding. For the moment, I'm going to try and push what I've got to the limits...

[Alestrom]

Mine is the 150p, but I have the newer version with the upgraded focuser. Interestingly when I come to focus I can't see the tube cutting in to the star disk, only in the final image.

Sorry mate, no idea why this should be the case

[iamjulian]

Great result Alestrom. Inspirational for those of us starting out imaging with the 150P and a DSLR. I will be delighted if I can get anything like that. Keep sharing your results with us.

[Alestrom]

Cheers guys. I've reprocessed the M101 a bit, the colour balance was a bit odd - you can now see some red in the spiral arms and the forground stars look a bit more natural, they were too blue before.

Johnrt - could it be that collimation is the problem with your images?

[johnrt]

Johnrt - could it be that collimation is the problem with your images?

I'm hoping so, I picked up a laser collimator from telescope house yesterday and have collimated the 150p, which was out. Now just need some cloudless skies to test it on.

Definitely more detail in your reprocessed image there.