I was extremely happy with this image of the beautiful Thousand Rubies Galaxy - my first attempt at creating an LRGB composite.

After a few years imaging in OSC, I finally made the commitment to image in LRGB using an entirely new setup - not a straightforward transition by any means.

My first attempt at creating an image using the Askar 130PHQ was this monochrome image of the moon - which I thought was quite striking.

My first attempt at capturing an image using the Askar on the CEM70 mount was this monochrome image of the Sombrero Galaxy, which I thought also turned out pretty well.

Moving to LRGB filters was a significant step, with a lot to learn about the new equipment, and a lot more about astrophotography and image processing.

Clearoutside predicted three successive nights with almost ideal conditions, a perfect opportunity to try the CEM70 with the Askar OTA and the LRGB filters.

M83 was in a perfect position, transiting at about 85° at almost exactly midnight, which gave 3 hours of clear imaging either side.

The first night I experimented with focus, polar alignment, slewing, plate solving and exposure - that all went pretty well.

The second night I used the L filter only, capturing 60 subs that I whittled down to 55 to eliminate some duds captured during a failed meridian flip, which I ended up managing manually.

The third night I set up a sequence to capture R G B in sets of 6 x 5 minute subs in succession, going through the loop 4 times, giving total integration of 2 hours per filter. That involved an automated meridian flip, which unfortunately also failed, leaving me with about 12 subs per filter - luckily, enough to create a reasonable image.

Thankfully, I worked out why the meridian flip failed - an inappropriate default setting that caused the mount to stop tracking rather than flip. Having sorted that out, I plan to revisit this target over the coming weeks, hopefully on a night with a new moon.

Special thanks to Rowan for his significant support during this process, and for his help getting everything working.

There are two galaxies known as the 'Southern Pinwheel' - M83 and NGC 300. I prefer the name 'Thousand Rubies' for M83 because it is so descriptive and somewhat fanciful. Interestingly, they are on almost exactly opposite sides of the south celestial pole, and are remarkably similar in appearance, except their spiral arms rotate in opposite directions.