September 13, 2020: M27 and M57 with the SN-6

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Yesterday it was surprisingly clear, so I trotted out the Meade SN-6 6" F/5 Schmidt-Newton, and tried it out on the Vixen Great Polaris mount (normally I put it on the GP-DX) to see how that would work. The SN-6 is just 300 g heavier than the C8 OTA, and a little bit longer, but with a much shorter focal length. The mount handled it well, and I gathered a load of images using the ASI183MC and Optolong L-eNhance filter. I didn't get guiging working yet, and my polar align wasn't good enough to go beyond 15s subs, but I gathered 484 of them on M27, or  2 h 1 min worth. Stacking in APP took a while (5 hours or so), but I am rather pleased at my first M27 at this focal length. 

Star colours are a bit weird, so I think I will try to get some regular RGB data and combine them. I also gathered a quick 151 15s subs on M57, but that really requires more focal length

Still, progress is being made