Bodes and Cigar "by accident".

[LaurenceT]

There was a clear patch the other night and I wanted to see if my WO ZS61 could go 2 minutes unguided on my new SA GTi mount. I started doing M42 but after a few frames trees started to appear so whilst still

inside I did a quick search for what was available but still high up and saw that Bodes and Cigar were there so tried that target. 2 minute subs were too varied so I knocked it back to 1 minute and took 42 subs until bed beckoned.

I have applied a crop for better effect but I don't think I'll try that target again with this scope.

 

[Elp]

You'll be surprised. I did a 9 panel mosaic with the Z61 and imaged over 160 odd galaxies in one hour per panel mono luminence even though most were very faint they were there. Plate solving the image showed more than 300.

[LaurenceT]

Sounds a good idea. I've only just managed to do a lunar mosaic but I'm keen to find out how to do a deep sky mosaic.

[Elp]

The main thing to be sure of is getting a flat field across your sensor. When I did mine the edges had all sort of star elongation as I was using an aggressive reducer so I had to try and fix the shapes in post process as I don't use blur exterminator.

The mosaic is easy to plan, I believe the air now has it built into the sky atlas, you just need to make sure you have a lot of time to acquire the data as more panels multiplies the amount of total imaging time, you might find it's a multi year project. I do my planning via the Telescopius website, its framing has always been accurate once you import the csv coordinates into the airs plan mode and have your cameras rotated accordingly.

Sometimes I just use a shorter FL camera lens, you lose the resolution but increase the FOV and it's a lot less headache.

Edited February 20 by Elp