8 replies to this topic

[ac4lt]

This image spans 2020 and 2021 and two locations, our old home in Bortle 7 Loudoun County and our new home in Bortle 4 Shenandoah County.

I've found it very challenging to combine Ha with RGB so this time decided to try using starnet on the Ha and that made combining the data a lot simpler. I was pretty happy with how this came out. The other difference from my normal processing was to use drizzle integration since the target was fairly small in my 80mm refractor.

This could be one of the last images with this camera. I have a QHY268M in hand that is just waiting for it's corresponding filter wheel to arrive so I wanted to give my ASI1600 a heroic sendoff with a 31 hour integration! Actually, with my small refractor and galaxy season, there weren't a lot of good choices so sticking with M101 was an easy choice

[astrodom]

Beautiful image Linda!  Your persistence really paid off.  I'ts hard to believe you used only a 80m refractor.   Great work, thanks for posting!

[AstroBrett]

Very nicely done. I have some data I collected with my 80 mm on M101 and this inspires me to have a go at it.  

 

Brett

[astrovienna]

Nice work on a faint target, Linda.  The new sky should be a lot more fun.

 

Kevin

[Mert]

That's a great result Linda, congratulations on this beautiful image!

[elmiko]

Outstanding job Linda! Great color and details! Great job on the processing technique!

[stargzr66207]

Linda,

Nice job on M-101. An 80mm refractor can do good work. The first 5 years I was imaging, I used one.

Hope your observatory project is coming along ok.

Ron Abbott

[ac4lt]

Thanks, everyone! I'm really happy with how that one came out!

Ron, I'm trying to talk to local contractors...waiting on a proposal from one and still trying to get some others to come out. Hoping I can get things moving!

[Professor2112]

A great send off for the 1600mm for sure!  HaRGB is my favourite way to capture Ha rich galaxies like this one, m63, m106, etc.