M101 The Pinwheel Galaxy (Peter Webster)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Ursa Major (UMa) · Contains: M 101 · NGC 5457 · NGC 5461 · NGC 5477

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M101 The Pinwheel Galaxy

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M101 The Pinwheel Galaxy

This is my 1st light with my new F2.2 RASA Rowe Ackermann telescope using a ONC ZWO 183MC camera, just 120 mins of data. 2 min exposures, unguided, on my iOptron 120EC. I really wanted to see what could be done in just 2 hours which can be typical of the time available for imaging in the UK due to unpredictable cloud cover and general bad seeing. I am happy with the results especially as the signal to noise ratio is hampered due to the over sampled pixel scale of 0.8pixel/arcsecond. A better choice would be around 1.25pixel/arcsecond which would double the SNR.

Update:

I have since shot multiple objects using the HFR method (same camera) (SGP) for focus, manually, my Celestron autofocuser hasn't arrived yet. The image here has individual subs in HFR of between 5-7, my most recent attempts ( becoming more familiar with the focus of the RASA, EXTREMELY SENSITIVE ) has subs at below 4 (down to 3.3 for 1x1 @ 120 seconds) to 4.2 max. As stated above this is 1st light which is more of a historic reference point as, hopefully, processes improve with understanding and ultimately so will the images!

Note: Such is the sensitivity of focus at F2.2 it is very easy to pass through the true point of focus by too aggressive movement of the focuser. It is best to go out of focus with gravity, clockwise and then to achieve focus turn anti clockwise, against gravity, with the 1/10 fine focus of the Feathertouch focuser built into the the RASA 11.

I hope to be posting many more images here soon :-)

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Description: Tried a little manipulation in Photoshop CC, same data set. So still noise to deal with as this is 2 hours of data!

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Astrometry.net job	3469527
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M101 The Pinwheel Galaxy

M101 The Pinwheel Galaxy

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M101 The Pinwheel Galaxy

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