M81 & M82

[Emanuele]

The 15th of February, me and my imaging buddies went to 27N, both for the STS119 launch and for imaging afterwards.
The night turned out pretty good, but started with some difficulties: the Park Rangers were giving tickets to fishermen and they had their headlights right on us, so after waiting for about 45 minutes I decided to turn north and image M81 & M82.
I only got 2 hours because I was having some difficulties in Maxim.

Pentax 125 SDP & Mini Borg 50
Tak EM400
SXVF-M25C
Maxim DL

This was the first time I was using the IDAS LPS, since 27N is in a mildly light polluted area.

24 x 5 min. no darks, no bias, no flats.

BIgger picture (1600 px wide):
http://www.backyardskies.com/BackyardSkies/M81M82_Information.html (click on the picture for the full frame)

Smaller preview:

[gregbradley]

Fantastic image Emanuelle. It is superb!

One question - what keys do you press to create the copyright symbol?

Greg.

[multiweb]

Wow! :eyepop: Truly amazing details and colors.Superb picture. Top work. :thumbsup:

[Octane]

Great shot, Manny, as per usual. :)

Greg: Hold down the Alt key, make sure your Num Lock is on and press 0 1 6 9. Release the Alt key, and voila!

Regards,
Humayun

[allan gould]

Great shot Emanuel

[Tom Davis]

Really, really pretty!!!

Tom

[pgc hunter]

Nice! love the detail in M82.

[bluescope]

Nice duo Emanuelle !

:thumbsup:

[Craig_L]

Superb duo Emanuelle. The Pentax and SXVF-M25C together seem to be a winner.

[telecasterguru]

The clarity is amazing.

[desler]

Great image.

Daz

[Ric]

wonderful images Emanuele, very crisp and very detailed.

Fine work indeed.

[Tamtarn]

Very nicely composed Emanuelle, loads of detail and colour balance well managed :thumbsup:

[jase]

This is a nice galaxy pairing Emanuelle. 5min subs is fine for the extended object, but this field is notorious for its integrated flux nebula or galactic cirrus (whatever you want to call it). Go deeper, 900s subs or longer to extract it out. It makes for a very pleasing image when you nail it. Thanks for sharing, well done.

[strongmanmike]

We love our southern skies and quite rightly so but I don't think we have such a magnificanet bright and close galaxy pairing?...do we?

Nice job Emanuelle

Mike

[spearo]

lovely shot!
frank

[Emanuele]

Thank you so very much to all of you guys! :) I am so glad everyone likes it!
In truth it is really not enough time and with only 5 min. subs! I'd like to go deeper on this one, but I am still not sure how to judge how deep is deep enough in order not to overexpose the image/background with light pollution!

Jase: thank you for the suggestion! Yes, I'd like to get the IFN, but I was in a fairly light polluted site and didn't want to end up with no subs!

[pgc hunter]

still a great effort and you should be proud for capturing that bubble in M82 so well!




*cough*SMC LMC*cough*

[Emanuele]

Thank you Pgc Hunter! :)

[iceman]

That's a very fine image, especially with no calibration!

Lovely.

[Emanuele]

THank you Mike! :)
The M25C is a superb CCD! So easy to work with and so low noise that no darks or biases are needed!
Now for flats....that's another story! :D I need flats but I'm getting by with GradientXterminator for now.
I might get a bigger refractor now that I have a bigger mount so I'm just holding to purchase a flatmaster or something similar!

[gregbradley]

Greg: Hold down the Alt key, make sure your Num Lock is on and press 0 1 6 9. Release the Alt key, and voila!

Regards,
Humayun[/quote]

Thanks for that. I tried that in Photoshop and in a Notepad document and it didn't work.

Does your computer have to be setup for it in control panel/keyboard?

Greg.

[gregbradley]

I figured it out. You have to use the numbers on the right keypad not the numbers on the top of the keyboard which is what I usually do.

Thanks,

Greg.

[gregbradley]

OK, new question; how do you get the copyright symbol and your signature in the same line in Photoshop? When I do that copyright symbol it places it above the line of text and when I type in my name it is below the copyright symbol. I also tried a new text for my name with the copyright symbol being entered and finished. Still had my name on a lower line. I see others have theirs all in a line, copyright symbol and name.

Greg.

[RB]

Emanuele this is a wonderful image, well done !
Love the colours and detail.
M82, The Cigar, is one of my favourites !

:thumbsup:

[Emanuele]

Thank you very much Andrew! :)