M81 Group (Phil Hoppes)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Ursa Major (UMa) · Contains: Bode's Galaxy · Cigar Galaxy · HD85458 · HD85828 · HD86574 · M 81 · M 82 · NGC 3031 · NGC 3034 · NGC 3077

Powered byPixInsight

M81 Group

Powered byPixInsight

M81 Group

I've been continuously tweaking my Vixen setup to optimize its performance. I was using my ASI071MC camera with that telescope and it is just not the right camera as spot size of the Vixen is too small so the corners and about 15%-20% of the borders all had egg shaped stars. I've since switched to using the ASI294MC with the Vixen and that is much better. I already own the mono version of that camera that I use with my Redcat setup so switching between the two is also quite easy. The ASI071MC should work fine with my C14 so it all works out.

I shot M81 a few months ago with my Vixen and the other camera but I wanted to try again and this time also frame it such that I could capture M81, M82 and NGC3077 as they are all in the FOV of this setup. I went back with the new camera and used my Falcon rotator to better frame up the shot and I was able to catch this view. It came out nice. I do see, looking at the previous ASI071MC shot that the color response of the 071 is certainly better than the 294 but it is still quite acceptable. There is no perfect setup and this works quite well for what I would like to do for the present time. Down the road perhaps what I will probably do is change the function of my Vixen to more scientific work and probably pick up one of the newer WO Pleiades series like the new 111mm 7 element refractor. Given what I see from my Redcat 51 V2 OTA I suspect that would be a nice upgrade.

Please note: The following tables are updated every 24 hours.

Distribution of astrophotographers

This table shows the number of distinct astrophotographers who have been assigned and IOTD/TP award compared to the total number of images awarded.
	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
Top picks
Top pick nominations

Distribution of subject types

This table shows the distribution of awards per subject type, compared to the popularity of images of that subject type.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Deep sky
Solar system
Extremely wide field
Star trails
Northern lights
Noctilucent clouds
Landscape

Distribution of data sources

This table shows the distribution of awards per data source, compared to the popularity of images acquired from that data source.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Backyard
Traveller
Own remote observatory
Amateur hosting facility
Public amaeteur data
Professional, scientific grade data
Mix of multiple sources
Other
Unknown

The “AstroBin Image of the Day and Top Picks”, or IOTD/TP, is a long-running system to promote beautiful, interesting, peculiar, or otherwise amazing astrophotographs, with a focus on technical excellence. Learn more.

Submitted The date and time when you submitted this image for IOTD/TP consideration.	...
Views by Submitters (available since September 19th, 2023) Every image is assigned to 50% of available Submitters. In the event that at least 80% of them don't view the image before its time in the IOTD/TP process expires, it's assigned to the other 50% of Submitters and the process begins anew.
Promotions by Submitters When 3 distinct Submitters promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for Top Pick status. This requirement, in addition to anonymization of images and distribution to only a subset of them, prevents biases and ensures that the best images are selected.
Promotions by Reviewers When 3 distinct Reviewers promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for IOTD status.
Early dismissal Staff members have a lot of images to inspect on a daily basis, and they can dismiss images if they believe they don't meet the requirements for IOTD/TP selection. If an image is dismissed 5 times, it's removed from the process. This streamlines the process and ensures that any bias present in promotions could be overruled by other staff members.

Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	9239611
PixInsight job	BHTKKTV0RL91TG13S6GUUR7ZXT34HL4D
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	09h57m34s.81
RA (top/left)	10h05m02s.34
RA (top/right)	09h59m25s.73
RA (bottom/right)	09h49m48s.46
RA (bottom/left)	09h55m51s.24

Dec (center)	+69°07′12″.8
Dec (top/left)	+68°40′21″.2
Dec (top/right)	+69°54′39″.7
Dec (bottom/right)	+69°32′49″.2
Dec (bottom/left)	+68°19′42″.0

Image Index:

Contribution Index (beta):

M81 Group

M81 Group

Equipment

Acquisition details

Description

Comments

Sky plot

Histogram

Image Index:

Contribution Index (beta):

M81 Group

M81 Group

Equipment

Acquisition details

Description

Comments

Sky plot

Histogram

Notifications

AstroBin is in READ ONLY mode

Sorry :-(

Sorry :-(

Sorry :-(

Are you really sure?

Warning!

Warning!

Are you sure?

Report abuse

Slideshow settings

IOTD/TP stats (last [x] days)

Distribution of astrophotographers

Distribution of subject types

Distribution of data sources

Sorry

Sorry

Share

Upload new revision

Upload uncompressed source (XISF/FITS/PSD/TIFF)

Delete image and all its revisions?

Delete original image?

Delete all other versions?

Delete all revisions?

IOTD/TP stats

The following people like this image

The following people bookmarked this image

Warning

Flag malfunctioning thumbnails

Contains

Remove yourself as a collaborator

Plate-solving information