Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Ursa Major (UMa)  ·  Contains:  Bode's Galaxy  ·  Cigar Galaxy  ·  M 81  ·  M 82  ·  NGC 3031  ·  NGC 3034  ·  NGC 3077
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M81 & M82, Bode's Galaxies, 9 Mar 2013, David Dearden
M81 & M82, Bode's Galaxies, 9 Mar 2013
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M81 & M82, Bode's Galaxies, 9 Mar 2013

Equipment

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Acquisition details

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Description

M81/82 was an easy find tonight, primarily because these galaxies are so bright they are easily visible at 1 s in the imager and the guider. I actually found NGC 3077 first in the imager field of view, then framed the shot. Conditions tonight are very good, and after having lots of trouble with guiding my earlier M42 image I more carefully east-weighted the scope for this one. Guiding performance is MUCH better (it may also help that I'm much nearer the pole). Anyway, I've got this wide-field shot framed and set up, and I'm going to bed since I get cheated out of an hour's sleep tonight anyway. I cheated more than usual on the colors for this, but think the result looks reasonable.

In the revision, I’ve backed off the star color enhance and have played with the hue & saturation to get what I think are better colors.

Date: 9 Mar 2013

Subject: M81, M82, Bode’s Galaxies

Scope: ST80+Antares 0.5x telereducer

Filter: Baader Planetarium UHC-S

Mount: CG-5 (Synta motors)

Guiding: 9x50 Finder/Guider + DSI Ic + PHD 1.14.01

Camera: DSI IIc (no chiller, T = 3 °C)

Acquisition: Nebulosity 3.1.2, no dither

Exposure: 50x300 s

Stacking: Neb 3, bad pixel map, bias included, normalize first, trans+rot align, 1.25 SD stack.

Processing: StarTools 1.3 Crop, Develop, Contrast, Sharp, Deconvolute, Wipe, Track (no noise reduction), Denoise (3 pixels), Magic:Tighten, Color:Saturation, Color:Red Gamma Decrease, Life:Less=More, CS6 Astronomy Tools increase star color, deep space noise reduction, AstroFrame.

Comments

Revisions

  • M81 & M82, Bode's Galaxies, 9 Mar 2013, David Dearden
    Original
  • Final
    M81 & M82, Bode's Galaxies, 9 Mar 2013, David Dearden
    B

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M81 & M82, Bode's Galaxies, 9 Mar 2013, David Dearden