With all the cloud thought this would be worth a look. It is not often you see these together in the one field. There are a two or three other faint galaxies in the field that are clearer in the fullsize version.
Taken 03/03/2006
Details Canon 5DH,300mm@F2.8,4X180s + 8X60s ISO 800, LPR filter. VR & GX and the usuals in PS.
Larger version 600k http://users.bigpond.net.au/avandonk/O&A.jpg
It would be very difficult to pick up the galaxy while not overexposing the glob.. Did you consider multiple exposures of different lengths and masking out the core of the glob so that the exposure was right on both objects?
Yes it was guided. I have modified my HEQ5 by connecting into the hand controller. A toUcam and laptop running Guidedog through the parallel port to a relay box which then switches the appropriate button on the hand controller. This keeps the mount accurately pointed to better than a thousandth of a degree.
All I really did was to even up the background with Vignetremover and GradietXTerminator. The pic below is the result if you dont.
There is no CA, it is the colour of the background bleeding through where OC washes out. I tried not to adjust anything independantly as it loses the point of a wide field.
As to sizes, the field of view is 6.87X4.58 degrees.