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M81 & M82 - Bode's Galaxies and IFN
This is my longest project so far, another 12 minutes and it will round up to 20 hours of exposure. I knew that this amount of total integration time have to be invested if I want to record that very faint signal of Integrated Flux Nebula that I was after. This is actually also the first light for my new addition to the imaging arsenal - Takahashi FSQ106 EDX4. Even such a small camera as Atik 414 paired with widefielded FSQ, allowed me to catch both of those mesmerizing galaxies in one field.
This image were shot during 3 nights in February and March 2017. Additional data of 4.5 hours imaged in Ha really made the difference in post processing. Bright red core of M82 just popped out with all the finer filaments and many small Ha regions across the arms of M81. In my opinion this really adds a lot to the looks of both galaxies. Beautiful, colorful galaxies is a pleasure to image and very challenging to process.
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Technical Info:
Optics : Takahashi FSQ-106 EDX4 @ F5 @ 530 mm
Camera : Atik - 414 EX Mono + EFW2 Filter Wheel
Filters : Astrodon Gen 2 E-Series - RGB Filter Set - 1.25"
Astrodon 5nm H-Alpha Narrowband Filter - 1.25"
Mount : NEQ-6 Pro (Self Hypertuned/Belt Mod)
Guiding: Atik OAG + SX Lodestar 2
Acquisition : Sequence Generator Pro (2.6.0.20)
Exposure : L (1x1) - 231 x 180 11 Hours 33 Minutes
R (1x1) - 15 x 300 1 Hours 15 Minutes
G (1x1) - 15 x 300 1 Hours 15 Minutes
B (1x1) - 15 x 300 1 Hours 15 Minutes
HA (1x1) - 18 x 900 4 Hours 30 Minutes
Total Exp: - 19 Hours 48 Minutes
Calibration: Bias, Flats
Processing : PixInsight 1.8 (1195)