Bodes, The Cigar and some IFN

[Andy Elliott]

This image is my longest in terms of acquisition time (over 25rs in total), and most complex yet in terms of processing. I wanted to capture the Integrated Flux Nebula (IFN) within this region, so used my ASI2600 (OSC) to get a wider field of view. But I also wanted to do justice to the galaxies, especially M82 with its hydrogen prominences, so I also used my ASI1600MM to capture HaRGB data as well. This meant that I had to somehow incorporate 2 different fields of view into a single image. Wasn’t sure how I would be doing this in Pixinsight, but I managed to find a You-Tube video explaining how to precisely do that; by creating previews as images and stitching it all together as a mosaic. The final blend was done in PS (probably could have done it in PI, but that’s beyond my skill level at the mo).

Anyway, I hope you like the result. The IFN can be seen enveloping M81, which is what I was after, and the hydrogen in both galaxies really pops.

Gear:
Skywatcher Esprit 100ED telescope
Skywatcher EQ6 R pro mount
ASI2600MC (colour camera)
ASI1600MM (mono camera)

Acquisition:
N.I.N.A
IFN nebula – ASI2600MC; 254x150s
Galaxies – ASI1600MM; Red (58x150s), Green (58x150s), Blue (58x150s), Ha (189x150s)

Processing:
Pixinsight
Photoshop

 

[Ben Egbert]

Wow all those wisps of smoke like energy give this a unique look I like it

 

[JimFox]

Wow Andy! Love this! That's a great amount of work, but I like your thought process on how to capture the various information. That IFN is so cool, I didn't even know that existed before, so I am learning something new here with this.

While it sounds like a lot of work, I would say that it was totally worth it.

 

[AlanLichty]

Beautiful result.

 

[Andy Elliott]

Wow Andy! Love this! That's a great amount of work, but I like your thought process on how to capture the various information. That IFN is so cool, I didn't even know that existed before, so I am learning something new here with this.

While it sounds like a lot of work, I would say that it was totally worth it.

Thanks Jim. Yes, IFN is relatively new to me too. Hope I haven't opened Pandora's box!

 

[Dan Moorehead]

Wonderful

 

[Mike Lewis]

Andy,

This is excellent, and those of us imaging this stuff know just how hard it is to get this image with both IFN AND decent details in the galaxies themselves. Sounds like the processing was quite complex too. I would like to investigate how that is done as well sometime, especially after seeing your spectacular results on this image.

ML