This is a little off the beaten track. I had a bit of a search on the net and could not find many images of this galaxy and I know why with that whopping great O star (Alnair) in the field.
It took a fair bit of work to get any detail out of this galaxy, as the light from Alnair floods the entire field; that is sort of interesting in itself but not ideal. Though I am quite pleased at the resolving power of this mirror. It seems not to be a lemon from OOUK.
Last night I drove to the observatory and made some changes to the scope setup. First up I changed the Cats Eye collimation triangle to one of the new perforated ones (nuclear symbol). While I was at it I removed the oval shaped edge mask they had on the primary. Its clearly for turned edges but I don't think this mirror has a turned edge. I suspect the shape of the mask was inducing some astigmatism into the mirror cell. Then I reduced the sensor to corrector distance by half a turn. Finally collimated and then did a test image. Interestingly it appears I am very very close to having round stars across the field now. I don't know what sorted the problem but most likely something of each. I then proceeded to do an imaging run on this target.
I had already collected data on this object and had cropped the data because of huge halos and an odd flare in the opposite corner to Alnair. So I added the data I collected last night to the previous data and it resulted in this image.
Thanks guys for the comments. It's drawn the attention of a respected chap who would like me to try for some Ha on the target. So I guess I'll have to give that a go just to see what is available in the field.
Mike, it's always good to try to work through boundaries, sometimes it provides unexpected results.
I have had an interest in this galaxy for some time, but my images only show a fuzzy blob. Yours has nice detail! I tried imaging it with the SCT but got so many reflections off the corrector plate from Alnair that I gave up. Maybe now that I have the ASI183 I might try it again with the 10" F4 Newt.
Trials and tribulations aside, which are reasonably common across all sorts of rigs including other much more expensive higher end catadioptric and fast OTA's and mounts, with some effort great shots are clearly still achievable... regardless of any further tweaking you still think necessary
I think stars are looking very good across the entire field. Congratulations Paul for persevering with fine-tuning this very capable telescope.
As for the image, it could be a nice metafor for some situations in life when some incredibly valuable things/people can be out shined and commonly overlooked
It is good to see that you’re taming that setup of yours, it’s resolving power is really quite good. That is a good stress test to see if you’re going to get any bad reflections and it has passed that test with flying colours
Simply a stunning image....The AG12 can be a difficult beast to tame but is superb when you get it under control.....I have had two AG's both tremendous instruments. I don't think I will ever sell my AG12 its just too good.
Superb! Outstanding details. 
