M106, 1 May 2014 & 10 Apr 2015 (David Dearden)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Canes Venatici (CVn) · Contains: M 106 · NGC 4248 · NGC 4258 · NGC 4312

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M106, 1 May 2014 & 10 Apr 2015

Very few clouds, but some high haze or smoke; fire season started early this year and looks to be bad. I later heard the haze is indeed due to fires, but they are in Siberia! Synched the PicGoto from Phad, found M106 easily, and imaged with 600 s subframes. Up to the meridian, guiding performance was excellent, but after the meridian flip it was quite poor. I had some problems focusing, because focusing on a star in one part of the image seemed to leave other areas out of focus. On inspection, discovered my camera was hanging loose in the focuser so the imaging plane was not orthogonal to the optical axis. Combined the new data with that from a year ago to produce a better result.

Date: 20 Apr 2015 (& 1 May 2014)

Subject: M106

Scope: Astrotech AT8IN (+High Point Scientific coma corrector on 1 May 2014)

Filter: Baader Fringe Killer

Mount: CG-5 (Synta motors, PicGoto Simplificado)

Guiding: 9x50 Finder/Guider + DSI Ic + PHD 2.5pre3 (Win 7 ASCOM)

Camera: DSI IIc no cooling (about 15 °C)

Acquisition: Nebulosity 3.3.3, no dither

Exposure: 20x600 s (+50x300 s on 1 May 2014)

Stacking: Neb 3.3.3, bad pixel map, bias included, 33 flats, normalize, deBayer & square. 40-60%tile stack.

Processing: StarTools 1.3.5.289 Crop; Wipe: 85%; Develop: 80.11%; HDR:Reveal core; Color:Scientific 250%; Life:Moderate; Deconvolute 3.5 pix; Track 6.1 pix, smoothness 85%; Magic:Shrink 1 pix. Align & scale 1May 2014 & 20 Apr 2015 images. Photoshop CC 2014 + Carboni Astronomy Tools layer 20Apr15 on top of 1May14, 40% transparency, flatten. Deep space nr; Increase star color; Levels; Astroframe.

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	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
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This table shows the distribution of awards per subject type, compared to the popularity of images of that subject type.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
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Extremely wide field
Star trails
Northern lights
Noctilucent clouds
Landscape

Distribution of data sources

This table shows the distribution of awards per data source, compared to the popularity of images acquired from that data source.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Backyard
Traveller
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Amateur hosting facility
Public amaeteur data
Professional, scientific grade data
Mix of multiple sources
Other
Unknown

The “AstroBin Image of the Day and Top Picks”, or IOTD/TP, is a long-running system to promote beautiful, interesting, peculiar, or otherwise amazing astrophotographs, with a focus on technical excellence. Learn more.

Submitted The date and time when you submitted this image for IOTD/TP consideration.	...
Views by Submitters (available since September 19th, 2023) Every image is assigned to 50% of available Submitters. In the event that at least 80% of them don't view the image before its time in the IOTD/TP process expires, it's assigned to the other 50% of Submitters and the process begins anew.
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Promotions by Reviewers When 3 distinct Reviewers promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for IOTD status.
Early dismissal Staff members have a lot of images to inspect on a daily basis, and they can dismiss images if they believe they don't meet the requirements for IOTD/TP selection. If an image is dismissed 5 times, it's removed from the process. This streamlines the process and ensures that any bias present in promotions could be overruled by other staff members.

Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	616572
PixInsight job	8YED9VOZO69FK73R80MZIVDGTYI9F93S
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

RA (center)	12h18m35s.95
RA (top/left)	12h19m42s.57
RA (top/right)	12h17m25s.11
RA (bottom/right)	12h17m29s.81
RA (bottom/left)	12h19m46s.34

Dec (center)	+47°17′26″.7
Dec (top/left)	+47°27′51″.3
Dec (top/right)	+47°27′00″.9
Dec (bottom/right)	+47°06′59″.9
Dec (bottom/left)	+47°07′49″.9

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M106, 1 May 2014 & 10 Apr 2015

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Image Index:

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M106, 1 May 2014 & 10 Apr 2015

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