M51

[Ken82]

I thought id have a crack at M51 since its reasonably positioned in the sky this time of year. 93x1.5min exposures. One thing id like to improve is the field curvature in the image so any help would be appreciated. When i look at my RAW files the center of the image is pin point and round but around the edges i get elongation of the stars. Ive concluded, looking at my RAW images m51 was below the center of the frame before my meridian flip and then too high afterwards. Which results in field curvature around the galaxy. I captured more images after the flip which would explain why the curvature is worse to the top. Does that sound about right??

Collimation was tested and very good and tracking was 0.5"-0.7" overall with almost equal RA and Dec. May also be spacing although im using the supplied T adapter.

Equipment used - 11"edgehd + focal reducer+ t adapter + canon 6d + idas d2

 

[wimvb]

Nice M51. What mount do you use to get 0.5" guiding?

[Ken82]

1 hour ago, wimvb said:

Nice M51. What mount do you use to get 0.5" guiding?

It’s a CGE pro mount. The guiding does fluctuate although it never goes above 1” and is usually 0.7”. What is important is that RA and DEC are very similar.