Pushing my ancient manual rig hard both in resolution and depth, Ive gone first for the dense glob 47 Tuc, still getting used to how much a full frame camera can fit in even at 1400mm fl. The full res image is here
https://www.astrobin.com/full/sylsa6/0/?real=&mod=
Both faint globs either side fitted in and are resolved. Theres a slight bit of tilt visible in the corners, sadly seeing wasnt the best with the guide star "fast boiling" in the turbulence aloft.
Last night I went for the Cartwheel Galaxy in Sculptor. I nearly gave up as even though the Argo Navis had me on the correct Ra and Dec, I could not see anything on short test subs. I had to take a minute long sub before I could see anything against the light polluted background sky. I sure didnt realize it was so faint.
Once centered I started imaging and kept going till the meridian was reached and the tube was about to hit the mount (Fork mounts are way under rated) A slightly larger full res crop is here
https://www.astrobin.com/qgnkpr/?nc=user
Happy to have pulled that detail out of Bortle 6 skies with some dust aloft seemingly apparent in the bright night sky too
All hand guided with no motorized DEC just the slow motion hand control, polar alingment within 10 arc secs means no DEC drift though slight imperfections in the needle roller RA bearing does require the occasional tweaking if the guide star moves one way or the other in DEC a few pixels
Thanks to Houghy for dropping by last night and keeping some company as I guided away glued to the rig
Scott
