We've had overcast skies for weeks now so when the stars made a short appearance the other day, I grabbed my telescope and tried to get some footage. PHD2 was playing up again and I have yet to find the reason for that - I was better off with simple tracking, weird stuff. After some plate solving the scope was pointing at M81/82, unfortunately there were quite a couple of light sources around but that couldn't be helped either.
I got around 200 frames until the clouds were back for good, half of which were somewhat decent, but still, there were a couple of gradients...
So the result is far from overwhelming but decent enough.
Very good. Would you please share how you prepared for the photo etc.
I didn't prepare for the shoot, I wasn't even prepared for the sky to clear up on such short notice, all I knew was I had to hurry because there would be a small window only.
I quickly aligned the scope (200/5 Newton), skewed into the general direction and began plate solving, inching ever closer to M81.
I then started a series of 150 shots, 30s exposure each. That was followed by a series of another 150 shots, which I then had to abort because of cloud cover.
I stacked the frames in PixInsight, which is when I noticed I only had 10s darks and unevenly lit flats, I had to discard half of the lights as well, so all things considered the outcome is ok.
What camera are you using?
The same I use for landscape photography, a Nikon D850.
Chris, this target never sets in the Northern hemisphere as It is close to Polaris. You just need dark skies, center the image and acquire subs while tracking. For galaxies, the darker the skies the better as they tend to be dimmer targets. I’d also not clip the blacks... this entire area is full of IFN (integrated flux nebula = dust lanes in our galaxy)
nice shot Thorsten need to get closer hahaha