Bode's & Cigar Galaxies & Friends & Galactical Cirrus

M 81 and M 82 are truly „iconic“ deep sky objects! I spent more than 17 hours on capturing this widefield, comprising „Bode’s Galaxy“, the „Cigar Galaxy“, some smaller galaxies nearby (like NGC 3077 and NGC 2976) and the galactical cirrus, that consists of dust within our own galaxy's disk.

To create a picture from RGB, H-Alpha and Luminance data and keep the balance between both, the bright galaxies and the faint cirrus, was a real challenge and took me many, many hours. Hope you like it!

 

Celestron RASA 8 f/2

Celestron Motorfocuser

EQ6-R Pro

ZWO ASI 2600 MC Pro (Gain 100, Offset 18, -10°):

RGB (no Filter): 420 x 60 (7h)

TS 2600 MP (Gain 100, Offset 50, -10°):

Ha (Baader H-alpha Highspeed Ultra-Narrowband 3.5nm Filter): 100 × 120 secs (3h 20')

Luminance (Baader Baader UV/IR Cut Filter): 475 × 30 secs (3h 57′ 30″) & 182 × 60 secs (3h 2')

Total: 17h 19′ 30″

Flats, Darkflats, Dithering

N.I.N.A., Guiding with ZWO ASI 120MM and PHD2

Astropixelprocessor, Photoshop, Pixinsight

 

Done