July 5, 2009

Kelling Heath April Star Party M81-M82

This is the second time I have attended the Kelling Heath Star Party, the first time was September 08 where we had 3 clear nights!!! This time I only managed I night of imagining due to the sky being a bit milky. Kelling Heath is a really great site and I would recommend it to everyone, the site is well laid out, the people are very friendly and more than happy to share their expertise. Another great find this year was the breakfast you can get from the center, the perfect antidote to a all night session :)
I managed to get 4 hours of data but had to scrap approx 3 hours worth of subs due to flex (note to self, always remember to check kit is locked down tight prior to imagining )
I have struggled a bit with the processing as every time I tried to being the detail out in M81, I would blow out the core of M82, saying all of that this is my best image of these two to date so I can’t complain too much.

OTA: SW 190 Mak Newt
Guiding: William Optics 90 DSI pro II PHD
QHY8 MaximDL, approx 6x 600
Stacked using: DeepSkyStacker
Processed using PSCS2

Posted by Jon under Astromony | Comments Off

July 2, 2009

M51 The Whirlpool Galaxy

This is the second image I have taken with my Atik 16hrc ( which is a great camera for Galaxy work ). I still seem to be struggeling to get the vivid colours you see in other images of M51 but that gives me something to work on over the summer. It may just be washed out due to light polution

Cheers Jon

Posted by Jon under Astromony | Comments Off