M81 and M82 revisit

Okay, there are some issues with this-notably the glow to the right. The moon is two days shy of full, and the floodlights were on again all night...

BUT-after all I figured out about the camera today (including the fact that light falling on the LCD screen will actually leak into a picture, and a lot of it too-Canon, that is totally unacceptable design) and using a felt "diaper" for the camera while shooting, the results are unlike anything I ever imagined I would shoot; certainly not this early in the game. The color even pretty well agrees with the Hubble shots.

This is only a quick edit; it's late, and really M81 and M82 need to be adjusted a bit differently for exposure. It's kind of blown out here, but M82 (on the left) really is showing a lot of red glow and dust lanes in its core.

All the extra work the last two weeks paid off-I shot 225 subs at 30 each, and only 2 were rejected for tracking, 2 rejected for having airliners fly through them, and 221 included in the final stack. More of this pair to come soon, once I take the time to properly edit this and do something about the moonglow.

 I can see how I need to make a baffle to keep light entering the scope tube at an angle that allows it to reflect directly into the focuser. The moon was at such an angle that I can afterward see that that was happening. The inside of the scope is just flat black spray paint, and actually that is not nearly flat or black enough, so keeping stray light out will be on the list of future projects-out of the scope as well as out of the camera.