NGC 253 Sculptor Galaxy (Andrew Hayes)

NGC 253 Sculptor Galaxy

Finally got some better weather.
Something a bit different this time. Finally drew up enough courage to switch out my William Optics GT 71 scope and change back to my original Celestron 8” SCT. For my first time using it for DSO on my Advanced VX Mount I was very nervous about how well autoguiding and focus etc would all go because of all the extra weight.
I am also lucky enough to be testing out the new ZWO ASIair Plus.
I had a few dry runs with new setup and on Friday night finally got some imaging done.
The ASIAir Plus and AVX mount handled the guiding much better than I had expected with .5” to 1.0” most of the night.
The ZWO EAF also dispelled any worries I’d had on the focus as well. Doing the AF a few times seems to have given a good enough for now result. Even managed to get the automatic meridian flip happening!
For a first time I am happy enough to put my name it. Hope you like it too.
The image is NGC 253 or The Sculptor Galaxy (also known as the Silver Coin, Silver Dollar Galaxy, NGC 253, or Caldwell 65) is an intermediate spiral galaxy in the constellation Sculptor. The Sculptor Galaxy is a starburst galaxy, which means that it is currently undergoing a period of intense star formation.
This lies 11.4 million light years from us.
Research suggests the presence of a supermassive black hole in the center of this galaxy with a mass estimated to be 5 million times that of our Sun, which is slightly heavier than Sagittarius A*.[18]
7 x 600 sec subs
9 x 300 sec subs
115 minutes total
Celestron Advanced VX Mount
Celestron Nexstar Evolution 8” SCT OTA
ZWO ASIair Plus
ZWO ASI294MC Pro Main camera
ZWO ASI290MM Mini Guide Camera
ZWO OAG
Optolong L Pro Filter
Processed in Astro Pixel Processor, Nebulosity and Adobe Photoshop 2022
Bortle 6

Original
Final
B

Astronomical Society of Victoria (ASV)

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Deep sky
Solar system
Extremely wide field
Star trails
Northern lights
Noctilucent clouds
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Backyard
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Mix of multiple sources
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Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	5258493
PixInsight job	2UYXXOQAJGWNWUET8BTSGTOVLJNQ1CHU
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	00h47m30s.217
RA (top/left)	00h48m42s.670
RA (top/right)	00h46m28s.936
RA (bottom/right)	00h46m18s.469
RA (bottom/left)	00h48m31s.966

Dec (center)	-25°17′37″.95
Dec (top/left)	-25°08′02″.37
Dec (top/right)	-25°04′53″.49
Dec (bottom/right)	-25°27′14″.79
Dec (bottom/left)	-25°30′25″.20

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