[allan gould]

Not sure where to place this - here or in the equipment section but since there is an image, here will do.
At Astrofest I was doing the usual 10 min subs with somewhat crappy seeing using OAG guiding through the QSI583WSG using the ZWO ASI120MM camera and getting round stars, so I began to wounder what was the limit I could go using an EQ6 mount.
I started doing 30 minute subs and finally went to 1 hour or 3600 sec subs an NGC253. I managed to get 2x3600 sec subs, 4x1800 sec subs and 5x10 min subs along with my RGB data.
I have attached one of the 3600 subs which had a little touch up in PS3 but the data didn't need much pushing as it was so easy to work.
Ill let this image speak for itself but I still haven't answered the question as to how long my EQ6 can track for.
What has amazed me is that there are more small galaxies in the background of the image that there are stars. I spent ages just going through the inverted image.
Allan


REPROCESSED DATA
Ive reprocessed all my data with a combination of Pixinsight as well as PS3 and added the colour data that I accumulated during that session. The colour data consisted of 5x10min RGB subs which was added to the luminance data. According to Pixinsight the data that it threw up while processing indicated that the 10 min subs had a noise factor of 4x that of the 3600 sec subs.
What Im very happy with is that in the luminance data the streamers, which come out of the plane of the galaxy, are just being recorded at the edge of the core and are plainly seen. Ive only ever seen this in images from my 10" SCT and surprised that it can be seen with a 5" refractor.
I must admit that I got lost in the Pixinsight processing and at times didnt know where I was and so had to finish it off with PS3.
Hope you like the final rendition and comments welcomed.
Allan