m81 and m82 second try (Mike Jaworski)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Ursa Major (UMa) · Contains: Bode's galaxy · Bode's nebulae · Cigar galaxy · M 81 · M 82 · NGC 3031 · NGC 3034

Powered byPixInsight

m81 and m82 second try

Powered byPixInsight

m81 and m82 second try

This is a completely different data set than the last m81+m82 image uploaded a few days ago, so I'm making a new image. I made a number of changes to the scope itself, which is another change.

For this image, I put in some effort to blacken the scope as indicated in the examination of flats uploaded a few days ago. In addition to reducing/eliminating stray light, an aperture stop was removed moving the scope from f/6 to f/5 (approximately). With the reduction of stray light, I was able to increase the sub-exposure time to 180s instead of 120s and get the sky-fog bank to about the same place in the histogram. That seems like a big win since it should be indicative of the improved contrast.

Anyway, the image is improved over the last version. I didn't have to bin the image down by 50% to get more signal out. This means better resolution from higher size. In addition, the SNR seems better so I was able to eliminate more of the blotchiness present in the other version (i.e. stretches were not quite as excessive w.r.t. what the data could sustain).

I hope you enjoy.

Original
Final
B

B

Description: This version makes use of data from both nights, so 2 and 3 minute subs together. A bunch of things changed so it's a bit messier than it could be, I think. I've also tried to push the data much harder than the first one. This is more in the spirit of how I processed M53. I'm still getting used to it - feels like I'm going too far.

Uploaded: ...

Cloudy Nights

Please note: The following tables are updated every 24 hours.

Distribution of astrophotographers

This table shows the number of distinct astrophotographers who have been assigned and IOTD/TP award compared to the total number of images awarded.
	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
Top picks
Top pick nominations

Distribution of subject types

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
Deep sky
Solar system
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
Own remote observatory
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.
Promotions by Submitters When 3 distinct Submitters promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for Top Pick status. This requirement, in addition to anonymization of images and distribution to only a subset of them, prevents biases and ensures that the best images are selected.
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	1576695
PixInsight job	EUJPADNKXOGUJKNTRUCA6N8W1IGR00C1
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	09h55m00s.20
RA (top/left)	09h53m01s.10
RA (top/right)	10h05m17s.66
RA (bottom/right)	09h57m09s.35
RA (bottom/left)	09h44m44s.66

Dec (center)	+69°18′36″.8
Dec (top/left)	+68°25′14″.10
Dec (top/right)	+69°20′51″.10
Dec (bottom/right)	+70°11′54″.3
Dec (bottom/left)	+69°13′55″.1

Image Index:

Contribution Index (beta):

m81 and m82 second try

m81 and m82 second try

Equipment

Acquisition details

Description

Comments

Revisions

B

Sky plot

Histogram

In these public groups

Image Index:

Contribution Index (beta):

m81 and m82 second try

m81 and m82 second try

Equipment

Acquisition details

Description

Comments

Revisions

B

Sky plot

Histogram

In these public groups

Notifications

AstroBin is in READ ONLY mode

Sorry :-(

Sorry :-(

Sorry :-(

Are you really sure?

Warning!

Warning!

Are you sure?

Report abuse

Slideshow settings

IOTD/TP stats (last [x] days)

Distribution of astrophotographers

Distribution of subject types

Distribution of data sources

Sorry

Sorry

Share

Upload new revision

Upload uncompressed source (XISF/FITS/PSD/TIFF)

Delete image and all its revisions?

Delete original image?

Delete all other versions?

Delete all revisions?

Delete this revision?

IOTD/TP stats

The following people like this image

The following people bookmarked this image

Warning

Flag malfunctioning thumbnails

Contains

Remove yourself as a collaborator

Plate-solving information