AZ-EQ6 First Light @ 2000mm

[Mark_Heli]

With the new moon approaching, I finally managed to put the new AZ- EQ6 through it paces under darkish skies (for Sydney anyway).

I am super pleased with the combination of the new AZ-EQ6 mount and the LX90 OTA at 2000mm. The size of galaxies is amazing and I have managed to get nice round stars with 90 second unguided subs.

Attached are some pictures from last night:

1. M83 full frame, scaled down for the web. 10 subs @ 90 seconds.
2. M83 crop at 50% resolution. 10 subs @ 90 seconds.
- The galaxy is huge and this is just 50% resolution :).
3. Omega Centauri. 10 subs @ 60 seconds.

The plan for tonight is to capture the Needle galaxy. I started last night with 2 test shots and it looks amazing at 2000mm.

Setup details below:
* Telecope: LX90 OTA
* Mount: AZ-EQ6
* Camera: Canon EOS 550d
* Location: Sydney
* Software: DSS and Paint Shop.Net

Cheers,
Mark

[Amaranthus]

Good to see! The M83 images look a little 'washed out'. Some gradient removal might help. Omega Cen looks terrific - deeply resolved.

What polar align method did you end up using? The stars are pretty round for 90 sec unguided!

[nebulosity.]

Great tracking and promising shots!

If you can, try and get some flats. They will dramatically improve your images!

[Mark_Heli]

Hi Barry - Thanks for the feedback. I have 2 different computers which I use for processing. The screens display the images slightly differently which makes consistent processing a challenge. I need to spend some time to calibrate my screens accurately. I have re-processed the m83 images on my other computer and pushed the curves and level harder. Let me know if this version looks less washed out.

For polar alignment, I am still drift aligning. It took ~1 hour to align yesterday which is an improvement over my initial attempts. When I finished at 3AM this morning I decided to leave the mount outside ready for tonight. Unfortunately when I went out tonight the clouds rolled in so the Needle galaxy will need to wait until next time :-(



Hi Jo - Thanks for the feedback. When I get a chance, I will definately look at flats.

Cheers,
Mark

[raymo]

Hi Mark, I was thinking that M83 looks a bit faint for 15 mins exposure.
I realise that your scope is f/10, but still seems faint; were you using a low ISO setting? 5139 looks great.
raymo

[cometcatcher]

Love the image scale at 2000mm! The brightness seems normal to me for high F ratios. My refractor at F9 takes quite a bit of time to get well illuminated DSO's.

[kosh]

Well done mark, your stars are nice and round for unguided, especially at that focal length!
The image scale of a SCT is great for galaxy imaging but the trade off is how slow they are. So at 90 seconds, you have captured a decent amount of data. If you go down the guided path, with say, 5-10 minute exposures, you will get some pretty sweet images.

Clear skies.

[Amaranthus]

The 2nd ver of M83 definitely looks better, but there is still a general gradient, probably coming from a bright background sky. You could remove most of that, and get other improvements, by using something like StarTools or Nebulosity or Pixinsight, rather than Paint.NET as your primary post-processing tool.