Antlia Galaxy Cluster

[codemonkey (Lee)]

Finally got my DIY electronic focusing kit to work ok with SGP for auto focus. It's not perfect, but since my gear is 350m away from the house and the Esprit needs very regular refocusing (after every frame would be best), it seems like an ok compromise. FWHM was in the low 2's for all of the frames, with the worst being ~2.5. Doing it manually I can get down ti 1.7ish on a good night.

Anyway, this is my latest work, a mere 7.8hrs on the Antlia galaxy cluster. Not very often imaged, I thought I'd give it a crack, albeit with micro data compared to Rolf's epic 152hr integration.

Full res on Astrobin

[Slawomir (Suavi)]

It looks like the focusing kit does a good job Lee. I particularly like the disc in the bottom right corner

[Atmos (Colin)]

Great to see you've got things up and running It is a pleasing image Lee, sounds like you have a little more work you want to do on it before it is humming along

[billdan (Bill)]

Good imaging there Lee, love all those galaxies, one in the RHS corner almost looks like Saturn.

You must be pleased with the Avalon performance compared to your old EQ6.

Cheers
Bill

[RickS (Rick)]

That's a nice result, Lee.

[Flugel88 (Michael)]

looking very smooth Lee.
Any idea what that tiny red ball is next to NGC 3260 looks a little like a PN?.

I'm trying to get SGP to work for me too but having major problems with getting SGP to talk to PHD guiding for auto focusing. I've only just managed to get a plate solver going and even that randomly fails for no reason half the time .

[Ross G]

Nice capture Lee.

Lots of galaxies in there.

Ross.

[codemonkey (Lee)]

Originally Posted by Slawomir

It looks like the focusing kit does a good job Lee. I particularly like the disc in the bottom right corner

Cheers Suavi. That's NGC 3269 and was the galaxy that inspired me to photograph the cluster :-)

Originally Posted by Atmos

Great to see you've got things up and running It is a pleasing image Lee, sounds like you have a little more work you want to do on it before it is humming along

Cheers Colin. I tweaked it a bit more last night, but I think that's about as good as I'm going to get. Sometimes it gets focus as perfect as I can get it by hand, after spending a good 5-10min on it, other times its not quite that good, but still, the worst of these is as good as the best images I used to get, so I'm happy with that.

Originally Posted by billdan

Good imaging there Lee, love all those galaxies, one in the RHS corner almost looks like Saturn.

You must be pleased with the Avalon performance compared to your old EQ6.

Cheers
Bill

Cheers Bill. I thought the same thing re the "Saturn Galaxy."

The Avalon has its quirks, but ultimately I'm very happy with the purchase.

Originally Posted by RickS

That's a nice result, Lee.

Thanks Rick.

Originally Posted by Flugel88

looking very smooth Lee.
Any idea what that tiny red ball is next to NGC 3260 looks a little like a PN?.

I'm trying to get SGP to work for me too but having major problems with getting SGP to talk to PHD guiding for auto focusing. I've only just managed to get a plate solver going and even that randomly fails for no reason half the time .

Ah man, that's no good. Thing have pretty much always just worked for me with SGP, it was more of a matter of me figuring out how to configure auto focus. Hope you sort the issues.

I think that red ball next to 3260 is just a slightly munted star. I tend to get some chrominance artefacts around bright stars and I think that's what's going on there.

Originally Posted by Ross G

Nice capture Lee.

Lots of galaxies in there.

Ross.

Cheers Ross.

[rustigsmed (Russell)]

very pleasing shot Lee, got to be happy with it!

Russ

[codemonkey (Lee)]

Thanks Russ!