M83

[janoskiss (Steve H)]

I must be blind, because the stars look like perfect dots to me. It's a fantastic image to my eyes. Love the small galaxies in the background as well!

[Somnium (Aidan)]

Originally Posted by janoskiss

I must be blind, because the stars look like perfect dots to me. It's a fantastic image to my eyes. Love the small galaxies in the background as well!

Thanks Steve. The shape of the stars is more prevalent in the dim ones. I was amazed at how much detail I was able to get with the full moon out, I wonder what those small fuzzies will be like under new moon conditions ...

[Decimus (Richard)]

Gorgeous image, Aidan. I can't see anything wrong with it either. So glad your new scope (stunning) is performing beautifully. (By the way, new APM has still not seen a photon of starlight!)

Great work. M104 sounds promising!

Cheers,
Richard

[Somnium (Aidan)]

Thanks Richard, every image i take gets better, so by that logic M104 should be good.

the good thing is that i haven't had to go to the observatory for 3 weeks hopefully the trips will become much rarer as the reliability of the whole set-up improves.

i look forward to your first light, looks like it will be one heck of a performer. Sometimes i think that it would have been better to go down the refractor route, the shorter FL makes stars seem sharper and tracking less of an issue, but i really wanted to shoot galaxies

[Atmos (Colin)]

You can shoot galaxies with a refractor
NGC 4038 on a new moon with not so good seeing (could have 2x2 binned).

[Somnium (Aidan)]

Originally Posted by Atmos

You can shoot galaxies with a refractor
NGC 4038 on a new moon with not so good seeing (could have 2x2 binned).

Nice one! but the larger aperture and longer FL should give more resolution for smaller objects in good seeing. but the fact that you can get really good images at relatively low FLs has made me consider getting a reducer and really boosting the focal ratio. that way i can get images on the 2 good nights a year

[Atmos (Colin)]

Getting a reducer could be a good idea. Your 12.5" slaughters a 5.1" in photon capture, aperture rules!

[Somnium (Aidan)]

Originally Posted by Atmos

Getting a reducer could be a good idea. Your 12.5" slaughters a 5.1" in photon capture, aperture rules!

It is actually 14.5 at f6.7 so a 66% reducer would be amazing ... And also fit my camera pixel size much better

[Atmos (Colin)]

Even better! If you could bring your scope down to about an F/4.5, that would be a piece of serious kit there

[Camelopardalis (Dunk)]

Originally Posted by Somnium

Nice one! but the larger aperture and longer FL should give more resolution for smaller objects in good seeing. but the fact that you can get really good images at relatively low FLs has made me consider getting a reducer and really boosting the focal ratio. that way i can get images on the 2 good nights a year

That assumes you get nights of good seeing

Otherwise, try smaller pixels...