M51 with a Mak 127 under the full Moon, Madness

[lensman57]

Hi,

I got home from work last night just past midnight and decided to set up for M51 ( as far away from the Moon as possible ) with the Mak 127 . After spending a bit of time trying to get things sorted I started imaging at about 1.15 am and managed 8 X 900s subs before the sky got too light, that was about 3.40 am. This is the first time that I used the Mak for DSO imaging as I always thought that @ F12 it is way too slow but I am beggining to  doubt that now. The image is quite noisy as there was a lot of haze around last night, the Moon had a lovely halo around it most of the night but as a whole I am not too dissapointed. I am also quite pleased that I could guide @ 1500mm of FL reasonably well. There is a little egginess to the stars as I couldn't get the balance of the Mak right with the 60mm guide scope on the side of the scope but it is not too bad.

8 X 900s with full calibration frames, SW Mak 127 @ f12, Atik 428EXC with IDAS P2, all on HEQ5 Pro and PHD guiding the guidescope was Altair 60mm guider and ASI 120mm. Processed  in PI, StarTools and PS for size reduction.

Regards,

A.G

[knobby]

Quality!