M81 & M82 , single 5min sub

[Grinde]

Hi folks!

After weeks of clouds, freezing fog & below -20°C temperatures, I finally had the time to head out again, & due to clouds at my usual location, I had to head to my old spot, with lots of lightpollution to the south & west, so I picked a target towards north. I finally bought a single 12v 95Ah marine battery, so I can connect all my gear into a single powersource, including my DSLR & laptop + heatbands. Since pretty much all my previous attempts have been stopped by either lack of battery in my camera, laptop, or dew (I finally bought my heatbands 2 weeks ago)... So, all gear in place, nothing can stop me now!!!

So i thought. It was supposed to be my first uninterupted imaging session ever since I started last year. -21°C in the middle of northern Sweden, nothing will stop me now. After 1½ hour of setup, alignment, focusing, framing, rotating camera, refocusing, reframing, it was finally time to start imaging for real!

A single 5min frame. That was it. Then the clouds rolled in.

!"#!"%#¤#&"¤!"!!!!! waited for 2 hours, while taking some darks. No change. Packed my stuff & went home. & I can't accept the fact that I only got one subframe, so I've been proccessing this one for hours now.

here it is.

A single 5min frame, ISO1600 (+ 3-4 hours photoshopping)

Btw, here's the first 3 raw-frames of the session. What a joke

Oh, I've ordered a QSI583wsg too, & thinking of ordering a 'widefield' refractor, maybe that's why I'm getting this weather

[MartinB]

Well one thing you know, the kit works. The stars in that 5 min sub look beautiful.

[Grinde]

Well one thing you know, the kit works. The stars in that 5 min sub look beautiful.

Aye, next time nothing will stop me!!

Thanks, I'm glad I got something out of the sub, took me all evening though, but better this than nothing!

Anybody know what the lower temperature-limit is for an EQ6, before tracking suffers too much?

[barkis]

You could certainly call that a 5 minute wonder. It looks a fantastic

outcome from such a short exposure. You have to be pleased with it.

Ron.

[adamsp123]

Fantastic result for one 5 min sub!

[johnh]

Just imagine 2 hours will get M81 outer parts perfectly but M82 looks finished to me as its so bright and concentrated.

John.

[jgs001]

That's come out great for a single sub... looks very promising for the future and proves all the kit works

[dc509]

wow - great for a single sub!

[steppenwolf]

This is a lovely result from a single sub - great star colours too.

[step_hen]

A one sub wonder! I'd be well pleased with that amount of data for such a short exposure total!

[russ]

May only be one sub but it's a bleddy nice single sub and a brilliant job with the processing.

[madjohn]

What rotton bad luck!!

Still that's a great result from a single 5 min sub, and as the others have commented, it proves everything works out ok.

As for the lowest temperature you can operate a NEQ6 in, it would depend on the grease inside, I cleaned and regreased my old Atlas using grease that went down to -40, hopefully I and yourself will never expierience those sorts of temperatures....

It still seized once in the ice, but that was because I had tightened the gearmesh too much.

More importantly, the handcontroller does get affected by the cold weather (the numbers and letters go quirky and unreadable) and you can even buy a heater band to stop this happening, alternatively you can wrap some insulated material around it or even keep it in your jacket!

John