M101 - First DSO image using Lunt LS80MT in night mode. (Phil Hoppes)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Ursa Major (UMa) · Contains: HD122471 · HD122865 · M 101 · NGC 5447 · NGC 5449 · NGC 5450 · NGC 5451 · NGC 5453 · NGC 5455 · NGC 5457 · NGC 5461 · NGC 5462 · NGC 5471 · NGC 5473 · NGC 5477 · Pinwheel galaxy

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M101 - First DSO image using Lunt LS80MT in night mode.

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M101 - First DSO image using Lunt LS80MT in night mode.

This is my first galaxy image that I feel good enough to upload. Shot this with my Lunt LS80MT solar telescope operating in night mode. More interestingly, I used an ASIAir-Plus to do all of the acquisition of the image. I purchased the ASIAir for use on my portable setup that I am making. I just received it and wanted to test it out. Actually I'm quite impressed with all that can be done using this to run an imaging session. It has a few drawbacks but not many and nothing so far I can't work around.

The image is one of my first running through PixInsight for processing. On this image I basically just followed Adam Blocks Faststart tutorial and did not do anyting out of the main workflow. I shot this in the city (I live on the outskirts of Phoenix) and was still able to get a pretty nice shot. There were no filters used in this first image and I use my ASI533MC color camera so I did not have to deal with filters. I realize I can probably get a darker background and enhance the colors of M101 if I use a nice narrowband filter set. I have an Optolong multi band filter I want to use on my next go around with this object but I'll save that for another night.

Overall, for a first real DSO image I'm pretty please. Stars are all nice and round right up to the corners. PI did a good job of getting rid of the noise. My darks/flats/bias seem to have worked well on generic things they are suppose to clean up so overall ok. I have a lot to learn but I'll take it for a first effort.

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Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	5894262
PixInsight job	5U6KLKVSYZI5LVBQ10IDR7FDW0VVY9DY
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	14h03m13s.30
RA (top/left)	14h07m49s.20
RA (top/right)	14h06m26s.10
RA (bottom/right)	13h58m31s.90
RA (bottom/left)	14h00m06s.46

Dec (center)	+54°20′55″.3
Dec (top/left)	+53°52′55″.1
Dec (top/right)	+55°01′23″.5
Dec (bottom/right)	+54°48′12″.9
Dec (bottom/left)	+53°40′06″.3

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M101 - First DSO image using Lunt LS80MT in night mode.

M101 - First DSO image using Lunt LS80MT in night mode.

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M101 - First DSO image using Lunt LS80MT in night mode.

M101 - First DSO image using Lunt LS80MT in night mode.

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