M63 - The Sunflower Galaxy with CEM60-EC and 11"EdgeHD

[x6gas]

Hi all,

Like most people in the UK I haven't got much imaging in this year, but last night there were a few clear, moonless hours here that allowed me the chance of first light on my new iOptron CEM60-EC.

I decided to wade right in and try imaging at my EdgeHD's native focal length of 2800mm...

The mount is still under development and I will need to tweak the guiding settings, but I'm impressed so far.  This is 16 x 300s luminance and 8 x 180s each of RGB, binned 2x2.

Scope: EdgeHD 1100

Mount: iOptron CEM60-EC

Camera: Atik 460ex

Guiding: Atik OAG, IMG0H, PHD2

Thanks for looking, Ian

[oldpink]

nice detail in the galaxy even close to the core
I know what you mean about not much imaging getting done

[swag72]

The data is looking good so far Ian - Colour not to my personal taste and I can see that there's still a little tweaking to go with the guiding as the stars are a little tear shaped, but you must be mighty pleased with this so far.

No one should underestimate the difficulty working at these focal lengths and neither that anything can be sorted in the first couple of goes.

Well done

[x6gas]

Hold up - that's not what I wanted to post... bear with me I'm away from my laptop for a bit now...

And yes Sara you're exactly right; the stars aren't perfect but it's a big improvement over my previous mount at this focal length and as you say I have some tweakery to do!

I do have high hopes for this mount!

[Sandancer10]

Very good image and nice detail. Well done.

[x6gas]

Let's try this one:

... nope that wasn't much better!

Gonna have to give this one another go.
 

[Mark72]

Nice core Ian, may be background a bit dark,

Mark

[Coco]

5 minutes @ 2,800 mm bravo!! 

Super job!

[Christopher Davenport]

Wow 5 min sub's at 2.8m is impressive.

Nice image!

[x6gas]

OK, I'm trying again...  I have constant problems with images that look fine on my laptop and then look terrible when uploaded on here and view on other devices, so it's a bit guesswork.

[oldpink]

bit more subtle than the first but a lot more depth in the arms

[x6gas]

5 minutes @ 2,800 mm bravo!! 

Super job!

Wow 5 min sub's at 2.8m is impressive.

Nice image!

Thanks chaps - a LOT easier with this mount than with my CGEM DX and I am sure I can do much better - as Sara notes the stars aren't perfectly round.  For reasons I won't go into, the scope wasn't perfectly balanced and I hadn't spent long enough refining the polar alignment (the iOptron has a very nice software routine) and to the honest the scope is a bit out of collimation.  I happy with this as a start, though.

[x6gas]

Nice core Ian, may be background a bit dark,

Mark

Indeed, Mark - hopefully a bit better now.  To be honest, it's been so long since I've done any imaging that I'd forgotten what I needed to do to try to make my images look ok once uploaded.

[Stargazer33]

That (second post) looks very nice to me, not many problems there, especially for first light with your new mount. I'd be very chuffed with that!

[davedownsouth]

Great shoot  .

Out of interest, are you using the CEM60 as a portable mount, or is it fixed in place?  If you are moving it about, how long does it take you to set-up it up?

[Martin-Devon]

Great image Ian, the detail stretches very nicely right to the core. Early days with the new mount but so far it looks very good indeed.

Martin

[Davey-T]

Well I think the first one looked more like a sunflower

Dave

[x6gas]

Thanks all.

Great shoot  .

Out of interest, are you using the CEM60 as a portable mount, or is it fixed in place?  If you are moving it about, how long does it take you to set-up it up?

Thanks Dave.  Yes it's a portable set up.  I can't say categorically how long it took me to set-up; it's a new mount with lots of unfamiliar features and even though I'd read the manual several times it still took a while to figure everything out.  What I can say is that the mount head is much lighter than my CGEM, the mount is buttery smooth so balancing is very easy.  The polar alignment routine seems good and the alt az adjusters work very well and give fine adjustment.

There is a cable management panel built in to the DEC but I couldn't get it to work last night so had to run separate cables to the imaging gear which is why my balance was off (I was in a bit of a hurry as I wasn't sure how long I had before the clouds and rain rolled in and wanted to get at least a few subs in the bag).

Cheers, Ian

[Barry-Wilson]

Great detail all the way to the core.

I'm sure you'll learn & master the mount, can only imagine the intricacies guiding at your FL.

Barry

[NorrinRadd]

That's terrific   Brilliant !   You've inspired me to have a go at it

[sologuitarist61]

Great detail Ian - well done!