Sculptor Galaxy NGC 253

[Striker]

I did my first Galaxy last night.

Canon 20DA 30 x 40 second unguided shots at 1600 ISO using prime SCT Focus on the C11 FL of 1900mm at F6.3.

All shots stacked with K3CCD and edited and cropped in Photoshop CS2

I had a go at doing some longer exposures guiding with guide dog but it tracks better unguided then guided....so I must be doing something wrong.....I still need to play around with some guide dog settings...so for the time being unguided will have to do.

[asimov]

Who needs guiding!?? Ripper image Striker!!

[seeker372011]

very nice image

with Guidedog..what exposure settings are you using? maybe going longer will help...so you dont over correct-try 3 or even 4 seconds

also try reducing agressiveness and see if that helps

[Striker]

I tried 1 second exposure and lowered the rate to 200 in the small box surrounded by the N,S,E,W tabs...agresiveness was 90%

What I find frustrating is that the star could be moving say slightly west it then counter acts this by moving slightly east but it keeps telling it to go east till its neally outside the guide square...you would think it would stop once it had been centered again....

I'm not too worried about guiding atm....I definetly want to do longer exposures with guiding but realisticly I dont think I could go much over the minute mark anyway due to the light polution.

[beren]

:thumbsup: Tony thats a pearler of a image well done once again

[Mick]

OMG nice work Tony, one of the best. :)

[gbeal]

Nice shot Tony, why not autoguide with K3? I do, and with Robbies StarMate, with 'nary a problem.

[avandonk]

Have you got the correct setting for the guidescope focal length,if so then try to reduce the aggressiveness as it sounds like its overcorrecting ie overshooting.Make sure the drive correction is set to x1.Hope this helps.

Bert

[fringe_dweller]

Superb! :thumbsup:
Kearn

[ving]

was looking at this galaxy last night. its a gret one to view.
nice image tony! :)

[Lee]

Do you use the EQ6 with Skyscan - I see Skyscan in your sig.... I'm going to pick up one of these units when I'm back from OS next year.... this image only makes me want it now!
Belongs on the cover of a magazine..... really good mate.

[Striker]

Yes Lee...done with this set up.

I really do love the skyscan....had some issues but looks more to of been mount related which seems to be fixed now.

The motors are so quiet....virtualy cant even hear them.

[davidpretorius]

All your work is great mate!!

[Itchy]

Congratulations on your first Galaxy. You have done a good job of it.

They can be tough targets and NGC253 is a very nice one to start on. I actually imaged it myself last night but I haven't processed it yet (need more darks).

Cheers

[atalas]

Nice work Tony ! looks great :eyepop:

Louie :thumbsup:

[ballaratdragons]

You picked a good target Tony, and a great pic of it.

I love seeing those arms spiraling out like that!

[seeker372011]

Tony:

one other issue could be causing GuideDog troubles...is your guide camera orientation ok?

when you use the nudge buttons- the ones marked N, S, E, and W-does your guide star move in the right direction?

ie if you nudge North, does the guide star move up? (if moves down thats ok because you can reverse North South). If on the other hand a North South nudge moves the star East West, you need to cahnge your guide camera orientation

sorry if I am repeating the obvious, but when I first started with guide dog getting this right was what made the whole thing work

[Striker]

Thats cool.

I know about these and have them positioned correctly.

It doesn't seem to be over correcting....like I said it starts correcting the right direction but then it keeps on going to far....my point is it corrects properly over sometimes a few exposures depends on how low I set it up but once it reaches it central position guidedog is still telling it to move further so it does until it moves out of the central box then guidedog then starts correcting back the other way...same thing happens...its not over correctiong on each exposure its just guidedog telling it to keep correcting when it shouldn't.....hope this makes sence.

[RB]

Great Image Tony,
and you've got a great observatory setup too.

Can only get better, well done.

:thumbsup:

[tornado33]

Yes nice image. I guess with short sub exposures you wouldnt need to worry about dark subtraction :) Plenty of sharp detail there.
Scott

[zipdrive]

it sounds like backlash settings are kicking in.. check the backlash settings in the guidedog are set to zero...also set them to zero in the skyscan handset, if this stops it from overshooting then might be on the right track... hope it helps..

excellent photo btw :thumbsup:

[Robby]

Superb Tony.... Who needs guiding huh!... Thanks for the plug Gary... :)