M81 - Finally, a clear night!

Hi all. I finally got a clear night. WAHOOOOOO!! The seeing was bad, and the light pollution was bad, but that didn't stop me from getting out under the stars. Janie, my 17 year old daughter helped me with these images. Despite the conditions, the image turned out OK. Comments and suggestions are always welcome.
Cheers,
Tyler

Takahashi CN212 at F/3.9 on Losmandy G-11/Gemini
SBIG ST2000XM with Astrodon Filter Set
L:R:G:B - 55:12:12:12 minutes
L binned 1x1 - RGB binned 2x2
MaxIm DL4 and Photoshop CS

Attached Image:

Great shot Tyler!
Good to see you imaging again!

Tyler,

Did you use the Newtonian corrector for this image and if you did which adapters were necessary to make the connections?

Thanks,
Frank C.

Tyler,
Yeah, Seems like clear nights have been hard to come by so far in 2006. Your M81 came out great given the seeing and light pollution, you must have done everything else perfect to have such a fine image.

I do like the second image better - it brings out more detail. Smoothing may have been a bit heavy - although that could just be the effects of seeing. I know what you mean about noise reduction though and how much to apply - it is so easy to do too much. I am guilty of this often.