Attempt at M81/M82

[Shibby]

Hi folks,

Here is my first imaging attempt with my new EQ mount. Many thanks to SGL users for their advice on choosing the mount!

The skies were very hazy when I took these subs on Friday night - I literally couldn't see any stars to the NE where the light pollution comes from!

I've upped my exposure time to 1 minute, this could be better with more time spent drift aligning and less haze...

So this is 30x60s unguided ISO1600(by accident ), SW130P, unmodified Nikon D70 & 2x Barlow.

Not great I know, but much better than I could get with my old Alt-Az. I think you can see one of the M81 spiral arms starting to show. More subs required...

here's one of the subs:

[Doc]

Thats a great start. I was a bit bored and had a go with your photo, hope you don't mind as I find it a great way to learn.

[jnp]

Thats good for a first effort on modest kit and the tracking is pretty good considering you are using a 2x barlow (I assume thats the only way to avoid the DSLR back focus issue?) How are you processing the images, you seem to have lost all the blue?

The signal to noise will improve as you add more subs. That will allow you to show the spirals better.

cheers

John

[Shibby]

I don't mind at all Doc! You've managed to get a nice black background. On my version, I've really overstretched the image to try and see the spiral arms.

jnp, I've messed around with the black point (cropping the different channels), again so the spiral arm can be (*just*) visible. As you can see from the individual sub, there was pretty bad light pollution and I'm not sure how else to get rid of it? This is probably the cause of the messed up colour. And yeh, I have the annoying back-focus problem with the D70.