M57 and M31/M110
Despite the high thin clouds, I managed to get some failry decent sequences out of my setup. Last night was the first light for my William Optics Zenith Star 66 SD and the counterweight system…oh man, I wasnt disappointed 🙂
First up, yet another M57, and the first one I`ve captured with some nebulosity round the edges. (Almost cerainly due to my installation of Bob’s Knobs and collimating it to within an inch of its life!)
OTA: NexStar 8 GPS @ f/10
Guiding: PHD + WO66 + DSI (yes, was subpixel guiding at FL 388mm @ f/5.9 without too many hiccups)
Camera: Canon 350D (unmodded)
Sequence: 10 x 240 seconds @ ISO800 (+ 5 darks, no bias or flats)
Stacked: Deep Sky Stacker
Post Process: PSCS2 + Noels Astronomy Tools
(Note:This is cropped but not reduced from RAW image size)
Next M31, and I`ve been waiting for this one to peek its head over the roof/gutter for a few weeks now. For thisone, I reversed the imaging/guiding train, so the WO66 was imaging and the NS8GPS was guiding.
OTA: William Optics ZenithStar 66
Guiding: PHD + NexStar 8 GPS @ f/10 + DSI
Camera: Canon 350D (unmodded)
Sequence: 10 x 120 seconds @ ISO800 (+ 5 darks, no bias or flats)
Stacked: Deep Sky Stacker
Post Process: PSCS2 + Noels Astronomy Tools
(A little distortion at the edges, but I dont have the 0.8 field flattener for it yet)
(Please click on images for a larger version)
Now I understand when people state that the WO66 can punch well above it weight… this “little” OTA rocks!
Posted by Steve under Astro | Comments Off on M57 and M31/M110
