I wanted an object that was high in the sky as well as bright, so opted for M81 which happens to be one of the
very first DSOs I had ever captured. The weather has been terrible so elected to limit this project to under 20 hours as I really wanted to see what I could produce with my RC.
Looking across the field it appears collimation is now dialed in, which I am very happy about as it was fairly painful to get right. I feel that 17 hrs is quite a bit of time and there is still a lot of detail missing from M81 in the arms so I will probably need to put extra hours into projects for the future.
My Touptek camera appears to get saturated quickly so opted for 180s exposures BIN1. HFR was swinging from 3.8 to 4.8 with an average of ca. 4.6. I think there is some work I can do re getting the stars smaller as well as being more selective on subs. Guiding has been between 0.6 and 1.4 RMS. I find that high level thin cloud really has an effect on my guiding with an OAG (and sub quality), something that was never an issue with my refractor. Despite high humidity, with the addition of a due heater, the primary mirror had no issues which was a problem when I first got the scope.
Maybe I'll add more data to this.
As a first non cluster object for this RC, I am pleased with the result and it looks promising.
CS Brad
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