SharpCap Forums

The weather here really is no good at the moment and past months. Especially now that autumn has arrived.
So looking at old data and trying things with that. Like with M82.

I have a lot of M82 data both in visible (no filter), Ha and Near IR (685nm). On viewtopic.php?p=21868 is the version of all that data combined in 1 image, plus all the capture data.
But that is not really showing the difference between those wavelengths, so I made this animated GIF which shows it.
The Near IR was almost colourless, so made it all in greyscale. That's also less distracting with changing colours, so the structures are in focus.
The animation is in 1920x1080px and a slow cycle, so you can focus on certain areas to see the differences. In Near IR for example, there are stars that are (almost) not not visible in visible and Ha and also certain parts of M82.

Menno

Click for bigger version

Menno

A neat way to compare results from different filters.

Looking back at the link it looks like 'final' wasn't that final after all.

Dave

Thanks Dave.
And no, the term "final" I am not using any longer

Menno

Good way of making the comparison Menno - interesting

I must say though that the near IR doesn't really seems to add that much to M82 - the dust band looks fainter but there doesn't seem to be all that much gained behind other than maybe increased brightness at the galaxy core?

It left me wondering what the ideal object for using a near IR filter on might be? Maybe objects in the other direction towards the galaxy centre that are usually obscured by intervening dust? IC342 is apparently a nearby (11 mly ) fairly large bright galaxy that normally appears very faint - maybe there are also some globular clusters on the other side of the galaxy centre that the near IR filter could also improve?

Tim

Thanks Tim
And no, nothing "spectacular" is happening with M82. On the other hand it's kind of cool to see that the structures of the dust are fainted a lot. That in itself I find spectacular

And yes, I was wondering myself that too. I know that mostly stars will show up that are (almost) not visible in visible light or Ha. Or some very small areas like in M101.
But I now have a ASI482MC camera that is much more sensitive in the wavelength and has bigger sensor pixelsize, which suits my scope better. Will experiment some more. That is, when we finally get clear skies here.

Menno