M81 and M82

[bobharmony]

This is a great image, Bob! It is funny, I have been going after M81 myself, and noticed my guiding is incredible when pointed in that direction--same as yours, in the .3 - .4 RMS error range for each axes. I wonder if it is the direction we are facing or something...

Thanks for the kind words and an interesting observation, James. I can say that the image I got in the last new moon cycle in February was the Rosette, which is pretty close to the Celestial Equator, so I don't think it is only the high declination that is causing the good result. On that image I got slightly higher results, but even there the total RMS was in the .5 to .6 arcsecond range, which has easily my best result up to that point. I think you are right that higher Dec yields better results in general, but there is something else going on too, I think.

I have some theories which I may float in a post on the subject soon.

Bob