Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Ursa Major (UMa)  ·  Contains:  Bode's Galaxy  ·  Cigar Galaxy  ·  HD85161  ·  HD85458  ·  HD85533  ·  M 81  ·  M 82  ·  NGC 3031  ·  NGC 3034
M81 & M82 HaLRGB, Gary Seven
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M81 & M82 HaLRGB

M81 & M82 HaLRGB, Gary Seven
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M81 & M82 HaLRGB

Equipment

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Acquisition details

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Description

Perhaps this is the first published image using an Agema SD-150 refractor, an aspherized 150mm f/8 fluorite doublet. Agema has not yet released the matching field flattener so I used an APM Riccardi 0.75x Reducer to shoot at 900mm. At the same time, I also implemented the Octopi Astro tilt adjuster. I have struggled a bit with the Octopi, though this is probably due to user error and trying to achieve a level of accuracy that is not realistic for my sky conditions.

Processing was a bit of a struggle. The IFN was picked up well, but bringing it up created too much of "glowy" effect on the galaxies. And really, the galaxies are the story of the image. There are other regions of the sky where I can get better IFN shots. Nevertheless, I may go back and try MaskedStretch and blend it with a GHS or STF stretch as MaskedStretch removes so much contrast from the galaxies.

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  • M81 & M82 HaLRGB, Gary Seven
    Original
  • Final
    M81 & M82 HaLRGB, Gary Seven
    B

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M81 & M82 HaLRGB, Gary Seven