The Sculptor galaxy was becoming somewhat of a practical joke for me. At one point I thought I was able to reliably control the weather. I've had 5 goes at this target now and all previous attempts resulted in total exposure times less than 11min.
My best attempt was 1min. After setting up a scope and drift aligning to what looked like a perfectly clear night I set my camera to 1min, looked up and the sky closed on me. One 1min frame is all I got the entire night.
My unluckiest attempt was foiled by a bushfire.
Anyway finally with clear nights last night, 4h 11min, with 1min subs.
Taken with:
Nikon D800,
Celestron C8, with f/6.3 reducer
NEQ6
Guided through Starshoot Autoguider through a 50mm finderguider.
Great shot Chris Lots of detail. I know what you mean about the weather, I finally managed to get about 50 subs of ngc253 last night.
Tough business this astro imaging at the moment, but then again nothing we can do about the weather.
