Not as bad as I thought

[Cloudwatcher]

The core looks larger when Auto Levels is applied to the isolated area(see attached) and I've made it "weirder" trying to soften the image.

[Demonperformer]

Unfortunately, I am limited by my alt-az mount. Any longer exposures and I start to get trailing.

Even more unfortunately, I can't rustle up £580 for an HEQ5 at the moment.

Darn it ... always think the last post on p1 is the last post, so when I reply I find the posts on p2 in between.

This was meant as a response to Peter's last one.

[Psychobilly]

Sorry DP dont want you to think I am dissing the image or the kit... M81 is a challenging target as the outer arms are pretty faint...

You need a minimum signal in each sub before stacking a large number of subs can bring it out...

There are plenty of targets where you will be able to use the technique very effectively...

Over the next few months M31 & M33 then later inthe year M45 and M42 and open clusters should all work well...

Peter...

[Demonperformer]

Things are getting interesting.

Took another three 'sets' last night, each equating to an 8 min exposure, producing a similar result to my first post. Just for fun, loaded them all into dss and let it play and the initial result amazed me with the detail - the 'gap' in M82 was clearly visible, without any tweaking.

Got another clear night tonight and (hopefully) tomorrow night as well, so by the end of the weekend could end up with over an hour of data in one image (well, it's exciting for me at this stage of my career).

Also, received today the copy of MEPC, ordered yesterday afternoon (good service there) so plenty of scope for processing when I have all this data.

Getting so excited need to go and have a lie down for half an hour before I start setting up.

[LukeSkywatcher]

I like the original image. I'd be chuffed if it was mine.