M63 the Sunflower Galaxy (Chris Levitan)

M63 the Sunflower Galaxy

These past few day have sure made up for this brutal winter thank the stars. Finally the sky conditions have come around making setting up the big guns and giving my OAG rig a real test. At least 10 minute exposures was the goal and I'm happy to report the rig exceeded my expectations. This older 80's Meade imaging gear continues to impresses me with how well everything is made and just works together. Case in point the OAG was parafocal with the main camera right out of the gate just by attaching the DSI pro mono CCD to it and tightening it down. That was a biggie and saved so much time.

The old DSI mono Pro proved more than sensitive enough to pick up faint guide stars with ease. Another biggie because I was considering investing in a dedicated guide camera for almost $500 dollars. Budget disaster averted!

I used my 80 Meade 2120 SCT with a Meade reducer corrector at f 6.3 which so far is not correcting very well as seen in the image but better than without it. The search goes on for a "good" one and the only 80'd Meade gear I'm not happy with but the Celestron equivalent has been pretty iffy as well. I found an old 80's OAG on Ebay for $35 dollars.What can I say this thing works beautifully with a large SCT, DSLR and DSI pro CCD. Ahh the good old days.

I was able to capture 15 - 10 minute exposures for just over 2 hours and every one was a keeper. My Atlas Pro AZ/EQG tracked wonderfully with this setup and PHD2. All I had to do was reset the guide scope focal length to 1600mm and do a single calibration and I was off guiding.

Here the final results after pulling an all-nighter from about 8 p.m. till 3 a.m. Modded Canon T5i at ISO 800, DSS for stacking using in camera WB and PS for a bit of a stretch and then Adobe Camera RAW for a final tweek. Let me know what you think of the final outcome. Look up!

Original
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Final
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B

Description: This is with no bias frames,Median method and my custom in camera WB using a grey card and noon sun.

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