Leo Trio M65, M66 & NGC3628

[SimonfromSussex]

First DSO with my 925. I had some horrible vignetting on this raw data but thanks to some forum advice I added some flats.

I built a light box (as per jmfdiver) out of some foam board and a cupboard light and added about 21 to this pic.

I know they should be at the same time as the imaging but i think I got most things back to how they were and the light box will mean i can do it next time straight after data collection. It's made a huge difference, still a slight lighter circle but so much better.

C925 with 0.66 focal reducer - x24 lights with canon iso 600 300 min subs, x5 darks, x21 flats.

Guided using phd - webcam through skywatcher finder. I was a bit worried about guiding using the finder and such a long focal length (I read a couple of blogs that say your guiding scope should be no more than a 1/4 of your imaging scope) but i think it was fine, phew!

[ollypenrice]

Well, you're up and running! To get this far at a long FL as a beginner is good going.

There are some optical oddities going on there, though, which you will be able to pin down, no doubt. At the top right of the image the stars have little tails pointing downwards but near the lower right of the image these tails point left. Stars in the top left have bites out of them. Is this collimation? I'm afraid I don't know but SCT imagers on the forum should give you some pointers.

I can advise on colour balance, though. You have a magenta caste which would respond to a small lift in the green, for a guess.

As I say, you are ahead of the game so keep at it!

Olly

[todd8137]

very nice

[Quatermass]

Very good a lovely image and one you can be proud of indeed you can allways do more processing later but that a great result

[JohnC64]

Very nice result - especially guiding at that focal length:icon_salut:

[petek314]

Viewed M65/M66 through my 10 " Meade on Friday night from SGL7 event at Lucksall. We (including Justyn, Mark, and Jan) could not make out NGC3628 because of the limiting magnitude. Its nice to see these detailed images of the faint smudges that we were viewing.