Imaging work has now finished on M81 and M82 Bode's Nebula, which was imaged in L(R+HA)GB, as per my usual for galaxy targets of this apparent size. This image is a single panel, rather than my usual multiple-panel mosaic.
A total of 315 exposures went into this image, with all LRGB exposures being 10 minutes long and the Hydrogen-Alpha exposures being 15 minutes long. Overall, this image is comprised of 46 hours, 15 minutes of total exposure time. When I stacked my set of 10 minute Luminance exposures, I noticed M81 was saturated at the core by a fair amount. This prompted me to capture a set of 1 minute Luminance exposures to produce an HDR Luminance image. Obviously as Red, Green and Blue each allow about one third of the light that Luminance allows through, I did not need to do the same with them.
The data was processed a couple of times before I was happy with the end result. The above represents what I am happiest with. Multiscale processing in PixInsight was done in order to bring out the IFN clearly above the background.
The data was processed a couple of times before I was happy with the end result. The above represents what I am happiest with. Multiscale processing in PixInsight was done in order to bring out the IFN clearly above the background.