Pinwheel Galaxy M101 - recommendations?

[mikey2000]

As m101 should be reasonably high in the sky for me this evening and a chance of clear skies, I thought I might give it a try.   With my newbie guiding experience, I'm managing 3 min subs quite consistently at +/-20 dec.  At +54Dec for the pinwheel, maybe I can manage even longer...  Will 3min subs be long enough to catch m101?  I'll probably end up with enough time to get about 1 hour of total exposure time with my 150PDS, hopefully longer.....

[Nova2000]

I think you will get it well in 3mim subs. Try adding more than 2hrs of data forthis dso

It's arms are faint. Bit they get captured well. Try a 3min exposure. Check if you get a good image 

 

Rajesh 

[iapa]

here 90s and 120 s ISO 800,un processed from an 80mm f7

No LP filter.

Not quite 'worst case' but with these you can just make out M101 - a little post processing to clear out the LP and it is more easily seen.

Sorry, using phone so cant clean it up just now.

An exercise for the reader

 

[mikey2000]

Ok, I had a few problems guiding at first.  Totally haywire!  But a quick recalibration sorted me out.    It's still a bit breezy and the occasional cloud blows past but I'll persevere for a while.

 

I'm trying a new workflow using an eyefi card in my camera and it's beaming the photos straight to me, one every 3 minutes, bang on schedule!  I'm having a hoot watching telly while DSS live is building up a photo for me.  I think a fair few subs will be headed for the bin tonight - the occasional gust is definitely giving me some wobbles.

 

Interestingly, wth they eyefi card and a bit of pre-dusk fiddling, I've totally given up on Go-To and carefully syncing alignpoints.  Astro tortilla gets the target centred within just a few minutes.  Love it!