SGL 6 M81 + M82 and 2 other friends 4Hrs data

[Keiran]

Hi all,

I had a fantastic time at SGL6 and managed to get abit of imaging done. Thursday was really really windy, but the rest of the weekend was good.

I took 75 subs between 150 secs and 600 secs at either ISO400 and ISO800 with some darks at ISO400

These were taken over 3 nights, through my megrez 72 and my canon 500D...

Full size HERE...

Thank you all for looking

Keiran

[barkis]

I was really impressed with that neat setup of yours Keiran, and your 81/82 image certainly proves it's capability. That's a great result. Nice work.

Ron.

[robbieince]

Very nice kieran

Got good colours and some lovely detail in both galaxies including m82s nucleus and dust. Excellent effort.

[Keiran]

Thanks very much Ron, and Rob. I am very happy with how it come out, I think next time though the Sub length needs to be longer, and does anybody know how you can darken the background without removing the colours and detail.

Again thanks for the comments

[JonH]

Looks great Keiran.

I've had a quick go with a curves adjustment layer but I'm not happy with the increase in noise. I'm sure one of the astro-guys will come up with a better option.

[shaunster]

here you go, run it through DBE in pixinsight

Would work better on the tiff instead of jpeg

[Keiran]

Thanks very much Pixinsight looks good but its rather exspensive

[shaunster]

Thanks very much Pixinsight looks good but its rather exspensive

Yeh its not cheap... sorts out all those nasty gradients from imaging through LP though!

[SlipperySquid]

Nice one matey, didn't think you where going to bother imaging Great to chat to you all and looking forward to meeting again.

Love the detail coming through in the image mate!

Matt.

[Keiran]

Cheers matt, great chatting again... CUCUMBERS ... I wasnt going to bother but you know how it is

[SlipperySquid]

Lol...I forgot about the cucumbers....making me giggle now though

[robbieince]

Go on - I know you want to..... cucumbers?

[shaunster]

Go on - I know you want to..... cucumbers?

this could get interesting

[Keiran]

A very long and obscure conversation, where we found out Matt has a wierd fasination of cucumbers ... Well it was funny at the time

[MG1]

LOL....cucumbers indeed!

Great shot Kieran. Nice and sharp with some lovely whispy bits.

Curves make a huge difference....Kev at SGL6 and Dave at Kielder have taken me through using them as adjustment levels rather than just applying them. This means that you can shift them about a bit to see what works best and you don't commit to destroying your painfully captured data.

Lots of iterations, small changes at a time, and if necessary masking the core and/or stars so that they don't blow out should do it.

I've also found that stacking as a FITS file in DSS and then using the free 'fits liberator' software to create the seperate channels for RGB 16bit images seems to give reasonable results.

Have a play....gwan!

[James]

Nice image Kieran - it's always a bit of a bonus to get several objects in one field of view. Like Ron I liked your setup too

James

[Keiran]

Thanks guys

James.... It was a shame you didnt stay the monday night, weather was fantastic

[Psychobilly]

Looking good.. love the colour in M81...

Is that with the FFII ...

The FFII is doing a pretty good job on the 72...

Peter...

[James]

Thanks guys

James.... It was a shame you didnt stay the monday night, weather was fantastic

Unfortunately my permission to stay was revoked rather quickly when my wife started to feel ill... oh well

James

[Keiran]

Thanks Peter, I think this is actually the FF for the Megrez 88, but it says it should work from and F5.5 to an f6... This imaged is cropped abit aswell though.

James ... is she okay? I hope so

[rich_t]

Nice colour and detail in those galaxies, looks great with the background darkened too. Nicely done!

Rich.