Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Ursa Major (UMa)  ·  Contains:  HD122865  ·  M 101  ·  NGC 5447  ·  NGC 5449  ·  NGC 5450  ·  NGC 5451  ·  NGC 5453  ·  NGC 5455  ·  NGC 5457  ·  NGC 5461  ·  NGC 5462  ·  NGC 5471  ·  NGC 5477  ·  Pinwheel galaxy
M 101 - Pinwheel Galaxy - First mono image!, Mark F
Powered byPixInsight

M 101 - Pinwheel Galaxy - First mono image!

M 101 - Pinwheel Galaxy - First mono image!, Mark F
Powered byPixInsight

M 101 - Pinwheel Galaxy - First mono image!

Equipment

Loading...

Acquisition details

Loading...

Description

I've always wanted to see the Pinwheel Galaxy through a telescope. Many years back, tried to look through my 10 and 12 inch dobs and was not successful. So when I put an astrophotography setup together, this had to be one of my first targets.

This was my first image using a Mono CMOS camera and filters. Read about color vs mono imaging and how mono could be more suitable to light pollution. Also after seeing that programs like NINA and PixInsight simplified dealing with the added complexity, I decided to take the plunge and make the switch to mono.

To keep simple, I decided to go with commonly recommended gain of 76 / offset 50 and picked exposure times by keeping the median ADUs between all filters. Not sure if this approach makes much, ended up with different number of shots for blue.

Comments

Revisions

  • M 101 - Pinwheel Galaxy - First mono image!, Mark F
    Original
  • M 101 - Pinwheel Galaxy - First mono image!, Mark F
    D
  • Final
    M 101 - Pinwheel Galaxy - First mono image!, Mark F
    E

D

Description: Second post-processing attempt, attempting to brighten the faint image. Ended up going overboard and looking over-processed.

Uploaded: ...

E

Description: Third post-processing attempt. Softened up levels and skipped deconvolution.

Uploaded: ...

Sky plot

Sky plot

Histogram

M 101 - Pinwheel Galaxy - First mono image!, Mark F

In these public groups

NOVAC