While we are in the midst of Galaxy season, I am of course, currently shooting galaxies.
I typically shoot with 3 telescope platforms from my driveway. Two of these platforms have image scales that make going after galaxies a reasonable proposition.
But my Askar FRA400 platform only has a focal length of 400mm and this is not an optimal scope for most galaxies.
So what do to?
I finally decided to go after a wide field shot of the M81/82 region with the goal of trying to capture some IFN - which is rich in this region.
So - long story short - I failed completely to capture ANY evidence of IFN at all! Several things conspired to rob me of this success, not the least of which is SAM (Stupid Astrophographer Mistakes). The sky condition and the poor placement of a rogue tree branch also helped in this failure so it was not due to SAM completely!
I made a decision a long time back that I would share my successes as well as my failures - as failures are an opportunity to learn. Wow - have I had a lot of opportunities to learn while doing astrophotography!
While I failed to capture any IFN, the resulting image is not completely horrible on its own.
The story of the image and the complete list of failures that led to it - along with a complete processing walk-through - can be seen on my website at:
https://cosgrovescosmos.com/projects/m81-m82-widefieldThanks for looking, and let me know if you have any questions!
CS,
Pat
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