A few faint-ish PGC's

[rogerg]

Hi everyone,

I've been compiling this shot for what seems like ages, and was intending to continue adding to it (it seems like it's only just in it's beginning stages) but the weather and moon just haven't allowed, and now having learnt so much from this image I am in some ways wanting to start a fresh on a new patch.

So, here is the "final result". I'm really not happy with it at all, but still enjoyed every minute of taking the photo's. All the images were taken under poor conditions (moon, smoke, thin cloud, etc), it's frustrating that I could achieve so much better if only circumstances would permit!

It's the same old story of an amateur astronomer, I know I know.

http://www.rogergroom.com/rogergroom/esh_rog_item.jsp?Item=283

No sharpenning etc (quality of them barely permits). You can see the increase inclarity of the 10 minute exposures vs the 6 minute exposures.

During the course of taking these images I masterred autoguiding in DEC, so am now working on 10+ minute exposures, hoping to get solid 20 minute exposures for my next composite which I think will be centered on PGC 51107 which I can't wait to start.

Roger.

[h0ughy]

doing very well there Roger

[strongmanmike]

Sometimes it is great to just go after interesting or faint stuff without having to produce a masterpiece.

Thanks for sharing these images.

You are returning some good guiding accuracy, what is your LX200 12" riding on...the native fork mount? If so have you done any mods on it to achieve such nice guiding?

Mike

[rogerg]

Mike,

Thanks for the reply...

Native fork mount it is. I've done about 5 PEC runs to get that down. Backlash in DEC is at about 4 seconds hence it's taken me a while to get DEC guiding working. No mods at all, they're all a bit complicated for my simple mechanical skills. Considering all I think the LX is spectacular value for money when things like this can be achieved, considering I'm imaging at 0.88 arcsec/pixel.

And yeah, I love going after the faint unusual stuff, even if it doesn't look like a masterpiece.

Roger.

[PhotonCollector]

Hello Roger,

Once again I gotta say how much I like these images. Nothing like seeing the deep deep sky.

I've identified your question mark objects with STAR Atlas-PRO (Level 3), see attached image - there are also many other non-stellar objects on your image - hope this helps.

Paul M

[ving]

woah! got some faint stuff there! :)
good work!

[rogerg]

Thanks very much for that Paul, that's great to get some more identified. I wonder why TheSky wasn't labelling the other PGC and those GSC objects, odd. I have the mag limits for galaxies set to 24 (nothing extra appears to show after about 19). Hmm, I'll have to look into it. Perhaps there's an update to the PG Catalogue that I need to download.

Roger.