Celestron CGX + 11" F2 RASA vs Full Moon (NB Rosette Nebula)

[dylan_odonnell]

Here is my first success with the newly upgraded setup (Santa was good to me this year). New mount, new scope and new (for me) QHY9M mono CCD. I've jumped from an EQ6 / c9.25" Edge HD/Hyperstar Rig to this new config so it's taken some adjustment. That said, my goodness the RASA is fast. These are 1 minute exposures. Approx 30 for each channel (Ha, OIII, SII). HST palette and using Ha for Luminance. Processing in PI and PS.

Despite poor conditions (moon + wind), I knocked this over in a straight 2.5 hour run, taking 120 exposures and throwing away the worst 30.

Higher resolution here : https://plus.google.com/photos/photo/100619122869204212222/6375442406611800050?icm=false

d

[JA]

What a display - Excellent :thumbsup:

Best
JA

[glend]

Very nice Dylan, congrats on all the new gear working well. A couple of questions, given just 60 sec subs and looking at the star shapes closely it appears unguided, correct? If so, how accurate was your PA? The stars indicate a slight oval shape which maybe tracking issues.it is feasible that a few bad subs could influence star shapes, did you check each sub or use an image grader on them before stacking? Lastly, are you finding that the CGX requires any east side heavy balancing?

[dylan_odonnell]

Yeh I used image grading and threw out plenty of subs but the main problem here was wind due to the recent heat wave. The wind speed monitor next to the scope was spinning the entire time and gusting badly enough to soften the stars considerably or ruin entire exposures. The 600mm approx fov is a little forgiving even in these circumstances though so I got away with it by ditching 25% of the total exposures taken!