Winter has come and has slowed the amount of imaging that can be done at Clayton Observatories.
The RC is now fully back in action or so I thought until I found frosting on my red subs of this image a week ago. Though 4 years without recharge is not bad I suppose. I have now recharged the desiccant but have used those red subs in this image. My plan being that I will reshoot them and add a lot more luminance to this image after new moon before it sets for the year. I really want to bring out the faint detail in the dusty regions.
I have always wanted to do both a wide field and a hi res version of this target, it has so much to offer us imagers. The availability of bright guide stars is a bit of a problem for using an AO though. I really wanted to capture the globular in the area, but a bright star was not present for me in that composition. I do however think this is a nice composition in any event and the image shows quite a lot of detail.
This is 8 hours of integration with the RC, STXL11002 with AOX and MX mount.
Click here for image