First M51

[Kirscovitch]

Beautiful clear skies tonight and probably the warmest it has been (20F) since I got my first scope back in November. Wasn't planning on doing any serious imaging as I didn't want to be out for too long and the main reason I wanted to get out was work out the kinks in my mount and to work on my polar alignment. After being out for about an hour M51 finally cleared the rooftop and I took just one image. 90 seconds ISO 1600.

Granted its only one image but I was quite pleased that there wasn't much star trailing with an unguided 90 sec exposure. Really liking the VX mount so far and I know there is room for improvement with polar alignment.

[Mondlicht13]

Hi Matt

Great image for a single exposure.

Was it with the C6 ?

Mike

[Kirscovitch]

Hi Matt

Great image for a single exposure.

Was it with the C6 ?

Mike

Yep. So far I am pretty pleased with the setup.

[kerrylewis]

Very nice Matt. I didn't think you could get such a result on one of the fainter DSOs with a single exposure. One day I'm going to dip my toe in the murky waters of imaging. One day.......

[Kirscovitch]

I was really surprised with this exposure as well. This was taken from the middle of my driveway. There is a streetlight about 100 feet to the right of the image. If it was any lower in the sky, I would not have been able to capture it as the roof of my house would have blocked it. Also I took this as a JPEG as I have been having issues stacking and processing RAW images. 

Mostly with this shot I was just pleased with the mounting and tracking of the VX. I am still getting used to an EQ mount and polar alignment was not spot on, but 90 seconds unguided gives me hope for what kind of images I can get with this mount. Wind was also between 5-10mph with gusts of up to 20.

[kerrylewis]

You can see the effect of the street light - at least I presume that's what is causing the orangey background but you could process that out I expect.

I often look at posts with just an M number in the title because, except for a very few, I can never ever remember which is which! Am I the only one with Messier dyslexia?

[Kirscovitch]

I suspect most is from the street light and the probably some light reflected off of the house itself as it were a few degrees lower I would have gotten the peak of the roof. And yes, I too have a hard time remembering all those numbers.

[idigitize]

Great shot Matt, especially for a 90s single exposure.

I know you connect your dslr directly with a T ring, with no adaptor, due to the back focus issues. Do you know if this means there's no scope to use a coma corrector with the c6-n ? There's very little info on this scope on the net, but appears to have been around for years too.

I want the avx mount, and at £200 cheaper than a 150pds due to the package cost discount, it makes sense to go for the c6-n. There are obviously a few short comings of this combo, but your progress and results are really encouraging.

How do you find the scope and fitted ep for general viewing ?

Great shots again!

Cheers

[Kirscovitch]

Great shot Matt, especially for a 90s single exposure.

I know you connect your dslr directly with a T ring, with no adaptor, due to the back focus issues. Do you know if this means there's no scope to use a coma corrector with the c6-n ? There's very little info on this scope on the net, but appears to have been around for years too.

I want the avx mount, and at £200 cheaper than a 150pds due to the package cost discount, it makes sense to go for the c6-n. There are obviously a few short comings of this combo, but your progress and results are really encouraging.

How do you find the scope and fitted ep for general viewing ?

Great shots again!

Cheers

I don't have a coma corrector so I really can't answer that question. I'm still learning with what I have but maybe someone else can answer it. As far as general viewing the only time I used an EP with the scope was using a 12mm reticle for alignment and I must say it was kind of a pain for visual work as depending on where the scope was pointed. The other 2 times out I fitted the DSLR right off and used BYEOS for alignment and PA. I find that method much easier. 

Hope I could answer at least one question. I love the VX so far. Just one minor issue with the dec clutch hitting the motor housing when slewing but that was fixed in less than a minute.

[Kirscovitch]

Still using that 90 sec sub, I played around with it for a few minutes in GIMP. I can't wait for the next time I can get out and get a decent amount of subs and take some darks and flats and try stacking them now that I think I have my DSS issues figured out.