M81 Galaxy Bode's nebulae


14th Feb 2007
Object name: M81 Bode's nebulae
Object type: Galaxy
Magnitude: 7.8
Size: 24.9 11.5
Position angle: 15
Classification: Sb
Apparent RA: 09 55 33.5 Apparent Dec: +69 04 02
Constellation: Ursa Major

M81 Galaxy Bode's nebulae


Click for large version

I've taken a large batch of data of M81. 48 frames of 4minutes exposure all taken on the rather clear and transparent night of the 14th. The companion galaxy Holmberg IX is showing clearly with some slight structure, but the field is not well flattened. Always tricky around M81 with all the background nebula, but the artifact at around 10 o'clock is entirely my fault!

The data has been processed serveral times and finally I arrived at a nice lum image. Thanks to Greg Parker and Noel Carboni's beautiful Deep-Sky Images from the New Forst Observatory I was able to take their wider field image of this area with single-shot colour camera. Using their result as a chrominance layer with my black and white higher res shot, we get the image shown above.
My Black and white luminance layer
M81 Bode's nebulae luminance layer with Artemis 285
14/02/2007

Captured in ArtemisCapture, calibrated in ImagetoolsCa, DDP and deconvolution in maxim, thuggery in photoshop.

Last years effort.
2005 Sc3 image.

This image was autoguided using my 400mm focal length refractor and my black and white SC1 webcam.

Current Imaging equipment configuration

Exposure Details :

Coma Corrector 48x240s on 200mm @ F5 with ART285

Curdridge Observatory, Southampton,UK