Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Ursa Major (UMa)  ·  Contains:  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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Pinwheel Galaxy M101 - Bortle 8 - NA140ssf first light, psychwolf
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Pinwheel Galaxy M101 - Bortle 8 - NA140ssf first light

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
Pinwheel Galaxy M101 - Bortle 8 - NA140ssf first light, psychwolf
Powered byPixInsight

Pinwheel Galaxy M101 - Bortle 8 - NA140ssf first light

Equipment

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Acquisition details

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Description

This was my first night with the Vixen NA140ssf out shooting galaxies, under city light in Bortle 8 skies. This is cropped in about 50% out of preference to focus on the pinwheel, although I like the perfectly flat output this scope can create without a need for a flattener or reducer.

There was a fairly decent final four match at the time (UCLA vs Gonzaga), so setting up in the back yard with a nice beverage was ideal once I started assembling this rig, which took some time to balance out. I'd say it's borderline grab and go, while also being a pier grade size of scope which is more awkward to carry than heavy. Now that I've got the setup and focus prepped, I'm looking forward to taking this setup out to darker skies this spring.

This was filtered through a dual narrowband to help with light pollution. I'd like to re-shoot from darker skies with other filters and without a filter to get a good variety of techniques on this target, so it's just the beginning of the adventure with this combo of equipment. That said, I could use some advice on processing via light pollution or working via a dual band filter like this, from any advanced imagers since in my opinion M101 is a bit greener than I'd like, so potentially I needed to synthesize a green or level out a little better? Workflow was done in Photoshop, manually stretching curves.

Comments

Revisions

  • Pinwheel Galaxy M101 - Bortle 8 - NA140ssf first light, psychwolf
    Original
  • Pinwheel Galaxy M101 - Bortle 8 - NA140ssf first light, psychwolf
    B
  • Pinwheel Galaxy M101 - Bortle 8 - NA140ssf first light, psychwolf
    C
  • Final
    Pinwheel Galaxy M101 - Bortle 8 - NA140ssf first light, psychwolf
    D

B

Description: Averaged in 50 minutes of additional time from an 81mm APO, re-processed via PixInsight

Uploaded: ...

C

Description: More contrast, balanced neutral with less background, flattened.

Uploaded: ...

D

Description: Less blue and red, more denoise and fewer shadows / saturation allowed.

Uploaded: ...

Sky plot

Sky plot

Histogram

Pinwheel Galaxy M101 - Bortle 8 - NA140ssf first light, psychwolf