A very quick m51.. Tuesnoad..

[JohnP]

I was down at Tuesnoad last night. Weather was a bit 'iffy' - It was mainly cloudy but then every now and again you'd get 10mins of clear skies. It was frustrating trying to set up etc. in the clear periods. Anyway eventually managed just 2 X 4min frames of m51 before I gave up. Obviously image is very noisey but shows potential the dark skies gives. Shame I didn't get a chance to get more subs As usual Atik16ic through MN56. If you look closely you can also see IC4278 & 4277 in the image.

Cheers,  John

[Fay]

Gosh, John, I'm, impressed!!!! How frustrating that you could not go further!

That would have been fantastic!

[JohnP]

Thks Fay - yep potentially it could have been a good image if I could of got a few hrs of data.. oh well just have to try again... John

[Fay]

Is it cropped?

[JohnP]

No - Why do you ask. The Atik 16ic is only 640 X 480 pixels..... John

[Fay]

I did not expect it to look so large

[Fay]

I think it is because, last time I tried it I had the camera on the WO with FR, whereas it should have been ED80 with no FR, so I saw what I had was not too big

[JohnP]

Yep - with CCD calc FOV of my MN56 & Atik 16ic is 17X22 arcmins - m51 is about 11X7 arcmins so fits really nice in frame.. Imaging at 2.03 arcsec/pixel which I think is fairly well optimum...

Just wish I had damn more time on it....

John.

[Fay]

I am pleased that I have been reminded of CCD Calc & have learnt a lot more about telescopes etc lately. I do not know about arc mins., will have to brush up.
I have only ever done a completed M51 with the webcam.