Bode's Nebula

Bode's Nebula, M81 and M82, is about 12 million light years away and includes a spactacular spiral galaxy almost face on and one edge on. The full size image linked below also includes three other galaxies NGC 3077, 2976, and 2959.

Clouds were more of a problem last night; I was able to capture an hour out of the three hours of useable data shot for 20 3 minute exposures stacked in the final image.

Taken 2022-04-27 04:06 UT from Fort Davis, Texas, with a William Optics RedCat 250/51mm telescope, Baader UV/IR cut filter, ZWO ASI 533 MC camera, and SkyWatcher AZ-EQ5 mount, ASI EAF and guide camera. All were controlled with a ZWO ASIAir Plus Controller. Processed in PixInsight, StarExterminator, Topaz DeNoise, and Photoshop.

With so many of the images lost to clouds the heros of this image are StarXTerminator, which allowed me to seperate nebulosity from stars for better processing, and Topaz DeNoise AI, which uses machine learning algorithms to do a terrific job of noise reduction.

Here is an image of my setup earlier in the evening with Orion setting in the west. After a few hours we had lots of thin clouds. I love this Treehouse deck.

Content created: 2022-04-27

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