NGC 5189 Spiral Planetary in Musca

[tornado33]

Hi all
Imaged this last night, calm conditions and jet stream over Newcastle not too active. Loving this super active polar alignment thanks to Sharpcap polar alignment function. Just a minute or so to get it within arc seconds, indeed limited only by flexure in the telescope tube. In all the 15 minute subs not a single dec adjustment was needed.

Image is 6 x 15 minutes ISO 400 with IDAS LPS filter, Hutech modded 350D camera, hand guided as usual. By loading up the old sampson astro optical supplies mount so that with the clutch off it just starts to move to the east, it means the drive gear is always loaded greatly increasing drive accuracy, the periodic error is very regular and slow, making it easy to correct. In calm conditions it goes great but is susceptible to winds.

This is a full resolution crop of the centre of the image. Full frame image here https://www.astrobin.com/402696/

[gregbradley]

A fantastic image. I can't believe you managed to hand guide it that well. That is impressive.

Greg.

[strongmanmike]

Excellent image Scott. That polar alignment gizmo looks intriguing. Like I used to do all those years ago :eyepop:, you still manually guide, albeit via a TV monitor but still, if you are manually guiding and you have the scope Polar aligned well, it makes a lot of difference and it shows in this image :thumbsup:

Mike

[tornado33]

Thanks. The gear was really behaving itself. Also I have a digital TV usb dongle and watch TV in a window, last night watched the footy while I guided, albeit all in red monochrome LOL

[Placidus]

A fine rendition. Lots of detail, obtained with more than a nod to tradition.

[Atmos]

You’ve captured some fine details within the nebula, well done :)

[Geoff45]

Great image Scott. This is not an easy object to capture and process and you’ve done well on both counts. Colour is good and lots of delicate detail.:cool::cool:
Geoff

[tornado33]

Thanks. I had to capture it while the opportunity was on, with Cloudfreenight indicating low jetstream winds aloft , dont often get good seeing from Newcastle
Scott