M51 - Whirlpool Galaxy (Mark Spruce)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Canes Venatici (CVn) · Contains: IC 4278 · M 51 · NGC 5194 · NGC 5195 · Whirlpool galaxy

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M51 - Whirlpool Galaxy

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M51 - Whirlpool Galaxy

My first real imaging run with the new rig. An AD250 Dall-Kirkham from 656imaging.co.uk mounted on an iOptron CEM120-EC supplied by Altair Astro.

Its been a long slog getting the CEM120-EC to guide properly but the latest firmware updates seem to have done the trick. I'm now getting usable guiding, I just need to refine the guiding setup, balance, etc. to get the best out of it.

This image was taken with reasonable seeing but variable and poor transparency (an even more light pollution than normal). I still need to refine the guiding to get the best our of the scope. There is actually a lot more detail in the image, but If I push the data too much further the light pollution starts to really come through and introduce way too much noise. For a first real image with a new scope pretty much 'out of the box' I'm delighted with the behaviour and results from my new AD250.

Suburban Astrophotography

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Messier Catalogue

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The “AstroBin Image of the Day and Top Picks”, or IOTD/TP, is a long-running system to promote beautiful, interesting, peculiar, or otherwise amazing astrophotographs, with a focus on technical excellence. Learn more.

Submitted The date and time when you submitted this image for IOTD/TP consideration.	...
Views by Submitters (available since September 19th, 2023) Every image is assigned to 50% of available Submitters. In the event that at least 80% of them don't view the image before its time in the IOTD/TP process expires, it's assigned to the other 50% of Submitters and the process begins anew.
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Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	3256336
PixInsight job	VC9OA7825A6QKYZ3OYDXRVSJ5AZ6IF52
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

RA (center)	13h29m52s.781
RA (top/left)	13h31m13s.797
RA (top/right)	13h31m11s.971
RA (bottom/right)	13h28m30s.831
RA (bottom/left)	13h28m34s.432

Dec (center)	+47°11′50″.53
Dec (top/left)	+46°54′10″.59
Dec (top/right)	+47°29′47″.39
Dec (bottom/right)	+47°29′26″.48
Dec (bottom/left)	+46°53′49″.72

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M51 - Whirlpool Galaxy

M51 - Whirlpool Galaxy

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M51 - Whirlpool Galaxy

M51 - Whirlpool Galaxy

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