M82 & the effect of a quasi full moon

This is a shot of M82 in Ursa Major. M82 is an irregular galaxy and is quite spectcular. I didn't expect to get results these good because yesterday (July 26th) was the days after the full moon.

This is the result of 60x15 secs frames for a total of 15 minutes exposure. I didn't use any guiding of any kind because I hadn't setup my Orion 80 because I was expecting to do planetary photography. Lesson learned, setup everything next time!! In any case the result is good, I'll retry with guiding tonight.

M82

July26th 2010 @ 23:19 EDT
60 frames of 15 secs. @ 1600ISO
Celestron 8 at f/6.3 (focal reducer)
No dark frames.

Processed with DeepSky Stacker, the Gimp and NeatImage

Location: La Rosette, Hemmingford, Qc, Canada.