The first galaxy imaged after upgrading the field flattener/focal reducer for my old Meade 8” LX200 “classic” to a Starizona Series 4 SCT Corrector — it appears to be very well made, but more suited to SCTs with apertures greater than mine (203.2mm). At first glance, I do not see major improvements in the star quality as compared to my old Celestron and Meade focal reducers. However, I need to do a more controlled and detail test before drawing any conclusions. There’s not many stars near the edges of this image to give it a proper evaluation.
NGC 5033 is a low luminosity Seyfert type 1 galaxy and I found it difficult to bring out details in its very pronounced spiral structure and nuclear bulge. But I love the name “Waterbug” galaxy because it does indeed mimic the little whirlybugs you can find spinning in the slow-moving water near the edges of our local streams.
Rob Gender has written a very nice
online summary of this galaxy.
ImagesA. Wide-field view (≈ 4.5° x 3°) taken on April 23, 2023 using William Optics RedCat51 (249mm focal length) and ASI294MC one-shot color camera. Major stars and galaxies are annotated along with inset view of NGC5033 taken with LX200 a few weeks later.
B. Narrow-field image taken April 25, 2023 using Meade 8” LX200 “classic” SCT telescope with new Starizona SCT Corrector 4 (0.63X) focal reducer/field flattener (1244 mm focal length) and ASI294MC one-shot color camera. Stack of 127 RGB light frames (180s each) for a total integration time of 6 hours, 21 minutes. Additional acquisition details provided at bottom of image.
C. Final image … same as image B, but without the acquisition details.
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