Caldwell 77 - Centaurus A Galaxy - 26/2/11 (Single shot - PowerMate test)

The 5th brightest galaxy in the sky and a southern hemisphere object. It spans 25' x 20' and so is nearly the size of the full moon. It is 10-16 Million LY away from us. My first image of this object.

Single image, 480sec ISO 800 CR2, no darks or flats. Post processed by Adobe Photoshop CS5 to crop

A second night of testing with the new PowerMate seems more successful with greater attention to focus and tracking. Field flattness issues towards the corners remain leaving only the central area relatively flat. I had hoped for a better outcome than this. See cropped version also.

Note added 1/10/2012 - These initial disappoinging results caused me to leave the PowerMate for 18 months before I realised a couple of things. The Televue Powermate T-Ring adapter is optimised for 55mm backfocus which is room for a T-Adapter to DSLR and nothing else. I had been using several T-Extension tubes on the camera side instead of extension tubes on the telescope side to get focus! I also found the allen key head that adjusts the crayford focuser tightness. See 30/9/2012 results for a stark comparison.

Telescope - Apogee OrthoStar LOMO 80/480 with Televue 2x 2" Powermate, Hutech IDAS LPS-P2 filter, Canon 400D DSLR, Ambient ??C not noted. Mount - Skywatcher NEQ6 Pro. Guidescope - Orion ShortTube 80 with Star Shoot Auto Guider.

caldwellc77 centaurus a galaxyngcngc5128 c77 centaurus a galaxygalaxy

From 2011 Honing of Skills