Bode's galaxy - M81This is my first image with overall exposure time of about 4hrs. Previous images were taken at about 30 mins or 1hr.
Seeing was quite ok but not very good so this is why FWHM is at 12.3 px at 0.5 arcsec/px. Eccentricity overall is ok at 0.45.
I still do manual focusing utilizing SharpCap FocusAssistant, this is quite tedious and takes a rather long time. One of my next investments will be a motor focuser. I would expect it improves focusing and helps to minimize FWHM.
It makes a big difference to have 4hrs vs 1hr of data!
The image is an integration of 260 subframes each 60sec at ISO400.
I had to throw away one session of 2hrs due to focusing issues, which was embarassing but also a good learning.
The Sony Alpha 6000 camera is quite susceptible to dust motes, so cleaning before each session is quite important. I check the camera with taking "flats" with a lens attached and downstopped and then run the PI script FlatContourPlot. This shows any tiny dust mote on the sensor. it is a tedious process but important.
I had to crop quite a bit after integration since the orientation and positioning in three different sessions did not match well. Something to pay more attention to in future.
The post processing was following the
LVA process and I chose a quite agressive final approach regarding colors and structures in the galaxy just to get the most structure out of it.
As always: comments are very welcome
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