3 or 4 hours of clear sky. More than enough time for a real test with my Off-Axis-Guider. I did struggle a lot. I had to find out, that M53 is really one of the toughest Messier objects to learn how to use an OAG. After some time I found a single guidestar – with a brightness of less than 11! But still, it worked.
After the session I invested some time to analyse my session and the date in Stellarium. I think I am prepared to start into a future guiding with an Off-Axis-Guider.
High resolution on Flickr:
Technical overview
| Telescope | Vixen VISAC VC200L |
| Focal Length | 1800mm |
| Aperture ratio | 9 |
| Erecting Lense | – |
| Filter | – |
| Mount | Skywatcher HEQ-5 |
| Goto-Control | EKOS |
| Mount Control | INDI |
| Guiding Scope Focal Length | OAG |
| Guiding Camera | QHY 5-III-462C |
| Guiding Software | EKOS, INDI |
| Dithering | 3 pixel |
| Camera | CANON EOS M100(a) |
| Method | focal projection |
| Camera angle | 0 |
| Camera Control | EKOS, INDI, Gphoto2 |
| Motor-Focus | PegasusAstro FC2U |
| Photography Date | 04/19/2023 |
| Exposure-Time Lights | 10x180s |
| Correction frames | FLATS, BIASES |
| Sensitivity | ISO 400 |
| Post Processing Date | 04/20/2023 |
| Stacking, Integration | PixInsight |
| Post Processing Software | PixInsight |
| Image Editing | Affinity Photo |
| Capture Place | Koblenz, Germany |
| Lightpollution | Bortle 5 |
| Scattered light | Strong |
One reply on “Astrophoto: Messier 53 – 04/23”
Hallo Thomas
Schön aufgelöst und runde Sterne .
Weiter so.
Gruß Joachim