M13 - First DSO with MAK150

[blackparticle]

I'd tried a few shots on a previous night at about 30s and all I got was a big smear so didn't really consider the Mak for DSO imaging.. But I had it out for a lunar viewing session and the sky was still clear after the moon had set below the trees so I thought I'd give it a go and see what exposure times were viable.

Unguided (with the scope at prime focal length of 1800mm) I was managing to push the exposure time to a whopping 8 sec without getting massive trailing !! .. I actually gave up after checking the subs at 15 minutes thinking it was all a bit pointless even trying with the scope at f/12.

I stacked them anyway just out of curiosity giving them a hefty pre-process first using photoshop. No darks used in this as it didn't seem there was much of anything going on and I didn't want to remove what few photons I had captured.

63 (out of 100) x 8s @ ISO1600

Quite surprised at the result to be honest.

[Dave Smith]

That is excellent for such a short exposure. I have just done this one with 5 minute subs and it has been suggested that I should go for longer

Dave

[blackparticle]

Thanks Dave. I was just looking at your great shot as a comparison. I've just realised as well that the 8 seconds must include the 2 sec shutter release so it was 63 x 6s.. so just over 6 minutes worth of exposure.

What did one of your 5min single subs look like? Can you post one up? Cheers.

[astroman001]

That's pretty good for 6 sec subs. It is well resolved to the core.

Peter