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NGC 300 Spiral Galaxy in Sculptor
Gave the new ZWOASI2600MC a work out last night on a very dim spiral galaxy in the constellation of Sculptor NGC 300. At magnitude 9 this Galaxy is quite dim with a very low surface brightness, a challenging target for most beginners like me.
Conditions we’re tough with seeing and transparency about a 6 out of 10 plus wind gusts to 25 km/hr until late
Captured at my weekender on the South Coast NSW Bortle 3 ( no moon )
8” f5 Bintel GSO newt on an EQ6-R mount
ZWOASI2600MC camera, Ascom control at Highest Dynamic Range ( Gain 0 offset 50 ) , cooled to -15C
40 x 5 minute dithered guided subs
20 x darks ( didn’t need to use them )
No flats ( no need for them )
Goto and tracking EQMOD StellariumScope and Stellarium ( found the Galaxy in 2 minutes , so accurate this software )
Frame , focus and Capture APT
PHD2 guiding , started at 1.20 to 1.40 total rms with the wind knocking RA around a bit and later on in the night the wind stopped and guiding was incredible 0.75 to 0.80 total rms ( Dec 0.55 and Ra 0.65 )
Stacked in DSS
Processed in Startools V1.6 OSC linear data set
The image suffered from a bit of star bloat due to poor guiding early on plus a bit of read noise ( might try Unity gain on next attempt) so used a heavy deconvolution, wavelet sharpening and de noise to tidy it up as best I could
Comments Welcome
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