Spent 9 days down at my NexDome observatory on the South Coast NSW and was lucky enough to score 4 clear nights without the moon around with sky conditions having average seeing.
Imaged 4 objects in total , one of them being M104 Sombrero Galaxy
Bortle 3/4 Skies
10” f5 Klaus Helmerich Newtonian Reflector
Skywatcher EQ8-R pro
ZWO2600MC cooled to -10C , Gain 101
No filters ( just internal UV/IR cut protective window)
Guide scope Orion 60mm with helical focuser
Guide camera ZWO290MM
85 x 2 minute subs dithered
40 x Flats
60 x Bias
EQMOD and Ascom Stellarium
APT
PHD2 Multistar guiding ( 0.60 to 0.70 arc sec total ) this mount is capable of tighter guiding but I’m hesitant to fiddle with the Dec worm gear adjustments. My Dec axis on the western side is tight but Eastern side has some play (a micro wiggle ) Those with EQ8-R mounts , any advice ? Should I attempt to adjust the eastern side so no play or binding , I’m concerned the western side will start to bind once tightening up the eastern side. These worm gear shafts unfortunately are not Swiss watch perfection, chinese QC is non existent.
Moving on ….
Stacked in DSS
Processed in Startools v1.8 OSC linear data set
Astrobin link below ….
https://www.astrobin.com/3cofwx/
I did intentionally back off on the processing a bit to try and tease out more detail in the outer arms.
Native Size version
Crop version
Comments most welcome
More objects to follow when I get around to processing them
Thanks as always
Martin