M81 / M82 From LPLondon

szymon

Well-known member
Here is a photograph of the night skies that I took over the past week and finished processing on the weekend.

The galaxy on the left is known as Bode's Galaxy, Messier 81. The galaxy on the right is known as the Cigar Galaxy, Messier 82.

Taking photographs of Galaxies from Light Polluted London is a real challenge. In particular, this one was taken over a period of a very bright full moon and includes multiple nights with wispy clouds. There was also no filter at all in front of the camera, a first for me; usually I will try to filter out some of the light pollution at least, but this time all of the work to remove it was done in post. I am not unhappy with the results.

This was my first time processing an image with PixInsight (I just started a trial). It's a very powerful tool indeed, I love it and am pretty sure I'll buy it at the end of the trial, but it will take me a very long time to learn how to use it properly!

Exposure:
• Total Exposure 10 hours
• 600 x 60 seconds Lights
• 20 Flats corrected by 20 DarkFlats
• 50 x 60 second Darks

Hardware:
• Altair Hypercam 269C Pro Tec
• Celestron 80ED Telescope
• IKHAROS 0.8x Reducer/Flattener
• DeepSkyDad AF3 AutoFocuser
• SkyWatcher HEQ5 Mount
• Orion Mini Guide Scope
• Altair 183M Guide Camera

Software:
• N.I.N.A. -- Capturing
• PHD2 -- Guiding
• ASTAP -- Plate Solving
• PixInsight -- Processing

Comments and Criticisms welcome, indeed appreciated!

bode_cigar.jpg
 
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