As we are slowly approaching galaxy season, I am reminded of the struggles I face when imaging smaller galaxies and objects such as M51 with a limited max focal length of 600mm, however this image is a great representation of what is possible with enough patience and good data.
I recently upgraded my guide scope from a common 30mm f/4 to the Williams Optics Uniguide 50mm f/4, which greatly improved my auto guiding performance since the focal length of the guide and imaging scopes are now a lot closer together.
When imaging this galaxy over the last couple of months, I was thoroughly pleased to see I was achieving consistently higher star counts and lower HFR ratings across my subs that in my dataset from the same time last year on this objects.
Even though astrophotography is an art and therefore not a contest, I still have to give credit to
@Bradley Holloway for his stunning image of this same galaxy
https://www.astrobin.com/5rb4of/B/ using the exact same imaging setup! It really is a testament to what's possible using a telephoto lens vs a dedicated scope, which nebula photos on YouTube did a recent comparisoin on.
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