M66 by Moonlight

[centroid]

Yep, as always, a clear sky arrives at last, and with it the Moon .

However, given the disasterous lack of clear skies these past few months, any gap in the cloud is not to be wasted.

The clear patch didn't arrive here until 21.30. I'd been patiently watching its painfully slow approach on the weather sat pics, since 18.00.

By this time Leo was well up, and reasonably far away from the Moon, so I had a go at M66, and while the result isn't brilliant, it was better than I expected, given the bright sky, and only an IR filter on the camera.

10x500s subs with the SXVF-H9C, attached to the 12" LX200R at around f/7. Guided with the Lodestar/80mm APO combination, and AA4.

Dave

[barkis]

You might not think it brilliant Dave, but it is certainly spectacular.

Beautiful in fact.

It's a pity you are only able to grab at fleeting clear spells to get any work done. This appalling weather can't last much longer surely.

Ron.

[CELESCOPE]

Well thats come out rather well Dave ,especially with the moon up , good detail in there well defined . a very nice result .

Rog:)

[Taff]

Thats a nice capture of the galaxie, great colour.Mark

[Beyond_Vision]

A great result Dave despite the Moons influence very good colour and detail

Regards

Kevin

[Les Tilly]

Have to aggree very nice results

Les

[brendant]

Nice detail in there Dave, you are too hard on yourself, a nice image.

Brendan

[Tim]

Very nice Dave, like the detail in that.

The moon is hellish bright tonight though, when's the damned thing going to drop over the horizon??????

[Herakles]

very nice

[Sam]

Despite the moon Dave that's a great image, very nice contrast.

Sam

[rich_t]

Nice detail, tracking at 2100mm FL is impressive with those the long subs!

[Psychobilly]

Nicely done Dave if you can fight luna and get such a great image what will it be liek on a decent night

Billy..

[johnh]

Great benefit of colour as you get it all in one go even if only brief session and impressive guiding at that fl. JohnH.

[bazza]

I like it Dave - alot.

Some nice detail showing, despite the conditions.

You certainly haven't forgotten how to capture an image despite the layoff!

In respect of exposure length, have you seen this:

http://www.ccdware.com/resources/

With you 'darker' skies, you might get a longer exposure - in my suburban location, I'm limited to 3-4 mins looking at this sub exposure calculator.

The autoguider calculator is very useful too.

Barry.

[centroid]

Hi Barry

Thanks for the 'link', and I had a look at the 'calculator', which leaves me a bit confused.

It recommends the optimum sub exposure length of 2.28 mins, for my H9C.

I don't think I'd capture too much of a DSO at that sub length.

I have run 15 min subs from my location, but am always wary of long exposures due to the risk of aircraft passing through the FOV, as I'm under a flight path here.

Dave

[bazza]

Dave,

I think your result is false.

If you click on the link at the top of that page ('Click here for Instructions') it goes on to talk about measuring 4 frames etc etc.

I think if you do this and the other info it requires, it will give you a much longer exposure time.

I'm pretty sure it will anyway.

Barry.

[moondog]

Excellent image Dave, never mind the conditions. Not seen too many of M66 posted on SGL

John