M104 or Sombrero Galaxy

[Wilsil (Wilco)]

Galaxy season has started!
So I went out during the clear night on Friday and captured nearly 5 hours of images.
I had to wait till it was high enough to clear the post of the fence.

Mount: SW HEQ5 Pro
Scope: SW ED80
Imaging camera: Canon EOS M6 M2, 99 exposures 180 seconds at ISO800
Guide camera: ZWO ASI120MM mini
Software: Sharpcap (PA), APT (capturing), PHD2 (guiding), DSS (stacking), PS (post processing)

I had to crop the final image due to the 600mm focal length.

[AdamJL]

yeah that would have been a solid crop!
Great stuff, this is a cool galaxy

[PKay (Peter)]

Good one Wilco

M104 is an ambitious target for an 80mm scope!

Best time to capture a small feint galaxy is when it is very high in the sky.

Above 45 degrees altitude is a good start.

This reduces the influence of the atmosphere.

Also no or little moon and exposure time as long as you can manage.

Dedicated and cooled camera also helps a lot with noise.


Well done.

[Startrek (Martin)]

Wilco
Wow that’s a fine image of the Sombrero considering your limited by focal length and aperature with the ED80
Well done indeed !!!
Like Peter mentioned Galaxies are best imaged around the new moon, higher altitudes and plenty of data
You don’t necessarily need a dedicated Astro camera but it does help a lot , my old Canon DSLR with my 6” newt was awarded Bintel image of the month in October 2019 for the Sculptor galaxy
Also you can image galaxies from Bortle 8 horrible light polluted skies too , just image during the new moon period and heaps and heaps of short exposures 60 to 90 sec ( 2 hours plus ) and my imaging software Startools cleans up all the bad signal gradient beautifully so you end up with a reasonable image
Keep it up
M83 is just around the corner in a month or so
Cheers
Martin

[Wilsil (Wilco)]

Funny you mentioned M83 as I started on it yesterday night to test the scripts in APT.
Delayed start, unpark scope, goto++, guide on and start imaging.
It all worked except it didn't restart after the meridian flip.

[Fernando]

That is a really nice Sombrero! Congratulations!!!

[RugbyRene (Rene)]

"I had to wait till it was high enough to clear the post of the fence."

I'd chop down the fence post.

[Wilsil (Wilco)]

Don't think that the neighbour would be happy when the fence falls down. :-)