M97 - the owlnebula

hi folks,

last night - at last - I had the chance to do some imaging. I had to learn it all over again, cos after almost 6 weeks cloudy nights I was a bit "unexperienced"...

I captured the owl for 3 hours and in the first 60 minutes I encountered a super dark sky!!! with a terrific transparency of 8/10 !!!
seeing was less well but still good!

data:

Scope: 9" TMB Apo f/7 (TeleVue reducer 0,8)
CCD: SXV M25C
exp.time: 3 hopurs (8 and 12 minutes frames - no darks)
location: http://stargazer.christelhager.info/index.htm
seeing: 6/10
transparence 8/10 - then falling to 2/10 (end of imaging)
AstroArt4 image acqu. guiding, colors and alignment
postprocessing in PS CS2 and Pix Insight LE

a small preview:
http://stargazer.christelhager.info/astropics/deepsky/M97-9f7-small.jpg

here is the full sized version:
http://stargazer.christelhager.info/...-9f7-large.jpg

and an enlarged crop:
http://stargazer.christelhager.info/...7-enl.crop.jpg

thanks for looking, guys!
Your comments are welcome!

best regards
Dietmar

Attached Image:

Bright & Beautiful! 8)
Excellent work Dietmar!

Cool!!! I had a lot of fun doing "galaxy gleaning" in the large version! Great work!

Pat

That is really awesome! Now I can really see why it is called the Owl! Just a great image, with excellent color.
Tom

Dietmar,
Glad to hear you got out - I was clouded out for the weekend.

The Owl is a great image. I really like the outer red ring. I guess separate and short color exposure may miss that - but you get it with 8 and 12 min subs with the SXV-M25C.