Newbie M81

[JKeay]

Hi folks,

I've had a telescope for a few years but only had camera for about 5 clear nights and I just tried PixInsight for the first time on Friday.
A heart felt thanks to Harry Page and Chris Woodhouse for their instructive introductions to the tool (I wouldn't have
known where to start without them).

Here is M81 from last Wednesday and any pointers would be most welcome as the tool (and astro-photography in general)
are new to me. The image is a stack of 30 x 2min exposures. I used BatchPreprocessing (because WBPP disappeared
from the menus after my latest update for some reason). Then DBE which I might need to ask about in a separate thread as my flats look a little strange.
The colour calibration was quite a long way off maybe this is normal for OSC cmos RGGB camera? Next were some stretches and finally a saturation boost.
No noise reduction.

I think I may have over-saturated the galaxy's core at some point because I ended up with some pink in there.

 

[pfile]

i think this is a pretty good image, beginner or not. i think even more of a saturation boost would be appropriate as this galaxy has some really nice yellow/blue colors. with a short integration you might not be able to push it too much, though.

rob

 

[Ginge]

That is a nice M81! What a way to start! I look forward to seeing more.

Clear skies,
Ginge