M106 in Ursa Major (RonAdams)

M106 in Ursa Major

I checked the sky tonight as soon as it was dark enough to polar align my mount. The sky

appeared clear so I decided to try and image M106. The Moon was not up yet but the sky

to the East was getting bright. In fact it was so bright that it made finding M106 difficult. After

searching a while I located a faint fuzzy that I thought was M106 but I could barely see it

even with averted vision. I took a 30 second test image just to make sure the object was M106

and sure enough it was. So I began imaging M106. However after taking three images I noticed

that my images were getting dimmer. I stepped away from the light of my computer monitor

and looked in the direction I was imaging. Thin misty clouds were everywhere. I decided to

continue imaging clouds or not. Once I finished processing my light, dark, and bias frames in

Deep Sky Stacker I could tell by looking at the tiff file that the light gradients were going to be

a big problem. I tried my Fitswork and my Olympus Background Elimination Programs. The

programs helped but did not completely remove the gradients. I also tried a couple of methods

I've learned in Gimp. Gimp did remove all of the gradients but also degraded my image of

M106 and completely removed the small companion galaxies. Anyway I finally figured out a

method to remove the gradients yet preserve the objects I was imaging. To say there is a lot

of drama connected with this hobby would be an understatement. I once told a friend that I

was thinking about learning to do astrophotography. He responded by saying well Ron that is

good but let me just say this. Astrophotography is not for the faint of heart. I think he hit the

nail right on the head. Sorry I get so wordy. With all of that said this is my most recent attempt

at imaging M106. Please Enjoy.

	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
Top picks
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	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Deep sky
Solar system
Extremely wide field
Star trails
Northern lights
Noctilucent clouds
Landscape

	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Backyard
Traveller
Own remote observatory
Amateur hosting facility
Public amaeteur data
Professional, scientific grade data
Mix of multiple sources
Other
Unknown

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Status	Basic success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	1535336
PixInsight job	n/a
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

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M106 in Ursa Major

M106 in Ursa Major

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M106 in Ursa Major

M106 in Ursa Major

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