Data Recovery and Redemption – Wide View Pinwheel Galaxy and Supernova (M-101 in Ursa Major) in LHaRGB
Teleview 127is; AP Mach2 GTO
ASI6200MM, - Baader RGB & 6.5nm NB CMOS opt. filters
H: (15x 420s, Bin 1, Gain 100)
L: (30 x 120s, Bin 1, Gain 100)
R,G,B: (15,15,16 x 120s Bin 1, Gain 100)
Total integration time = 3.8 hrs
So what does one do with the data collected, that is faulty either due to nature or due to my ignorance, laziness, or forgetfulness. I have decided to create a series where I have used the flawed data anyways to try and create images that have one or more redeeming qualities that make it worth viewing despite shortcomings. I will attempt to list the shortcomings as I seen them, as well as what I believe redeems the images.
This image was shot over 1 night only, on the night (May 20, 2023) that I learned of the Supernova that just appeared in M101 and appears in this image too. (Just on the night before we had been imaging it with the Plasket 1.8m telescope at the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory, so we captured it right after its discovery!).
Downfall:
On May 20th, my notes records indicate that the “sky transparency” was poor due to some high humidity/mist that was in the air. This created some halos around the brighter stars in the image. Some of these halos ended up pretty green in RGB as well. In any event, the star halo are not great in the image.
In addition, while I placed my new, second full frame camera on my Televue telescope, I had not yet installed the wide-field corrector to flatten the field over the full frame. The stars in the corners are not great in this image, but not too bad.
Redemption:
The details I managed to capture in galaxy, at the model FL of 660mm are fantastic in my opinion – particularly in light of the sky conditions and are a testament to this fine telescope. If you zoom in on the image, I am proud of the amount of detail you can see, within the background/satellite galaxies.