I am looking to have my first attempt at photographing a galaxy this weekend - weather permitting. I use a Nikon D700 on a 5 inch refractor. Appreciate suggestions for a newbie on exposure times, ISO setting and number of light frames. I use ImagesPlus for stacking and the very basic processing I have managed at this early stage of my learning curve. Having a go at Sculptor and/or M31 maybe but again open to suggestions. Something fairly large anyway.
I have taken a few images with exposures up to 3mins with the mount drift aligned. Worked OK but now the owner of a shiny new autoguider so I hope exposure times can be much longer if necessary
try to get upto 5 minutes with round stars it really doesn't matter what your target is once you hit the 5 minute mark thermal noise will start presenting itself in a big way if your ambient temps arnt around 0-5 deg. keep pluging at it and remember if you can get round stars then its upto your focusing skills the data will appear!
once you hit the 5 minute mark thermal noise will start presenting itself in a big way if your ambient temps arnt around 0-5 deg. 
