M101 - test shot with Meade ETX125 (Leela.Astro.Imaging)

M101 - test shot with Meade ETX125

This is a test shot. I am experimenting with using a deforked Meade ETX125 as a deep galactic imaging unit. Here's the learning so far.

I deforked the ETX125 and put a Wegat back on it - that was a revelation and allows 2" accessories, mounting on a GEM etc. Given the optics quality, and the long focal length, but user-friendly OTA size, I thought I would try it on DSO. SO I put a Baader Steeltrack on it, with an AF3 autofocuset from DeepSkyDad.

Guiding is with a flattened Evoguide50 with multi-star in KStars/EKOS. On an Avalon M-Uno with 1s guide pulses it got pretty good RMS even at this super-long focal length!

The camera is 4:3 294MCPro, binned 2x2.

I did hilariously try some narrow filters, but the image was so dim that autofocusing, alignment etc would take too long. So this is with just a normal CLSCCD filter (I did also try completely unfiltered, without even a UV/IR block which came out surprisingly well too).

The biggest frustration for me is the flats calibration. You can clearly see the bunnies, but I've taken different sets of flats, and these bunnies are still there (this doesn't happen with a wider refractor). Is it possible that because of the focal length, the data is so sensitive that the auto-refocusing that happens during the night means taking flats at the end is out of calibration for some of the earlier lights?

Does anyone have tips for perfectly calibrating out long focal length Mak lights?

Just a bit of processing on it (PCC, then NXT, BXT, GHS and a bit of BXT again). I'm quite surprised at how well it came out tbh, except for the flats calibration. If I can get those sorted, this is a v user-friendly deep galactic cannon. So any tips on the flats would be much appreciated!

Maksutov imaging
Cloudy Nights

DSO (long focal length)

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Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	7554911
PixInsight job	UP9U81TXKV8SJ9NJUMDK685QUP4K4HU8
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	14h03m13s.593
RA (top/left)	14h04m36s.958
RA (top/right)	14h04m28s.917
RA (bottom/right)	14h01m49s.990
RA (bottom/left)	14h01m59s.473

Dec (center)	+54°20′53″.62
Dec (top/left)	+54°04′11″.35
Dec (top/right)	+54°38′26″.89
Dec (bottom/right)	+54°37′32″.80
Dec (bottom/left)	+54°03′16″.85

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