Capture details: Celestron AVX mount, Apertura 60mm FPL-53 doublet with flattener, ZWO ASI2600mc pro, and ZWO ASI120mm mini guide camera

Also, in the picture is Stephan’s quintet(zoomed in 3rd pic). It is an apparent cluster of galaxies. Four of these are interacting galaxies approximately 300 million light years away, and one is visually superimposed, and about 40 million light years away.

Oh totally. I have a 360mm refractor that is just a dream to shoot with. The long focal length is worth the pain for some of longer targets though. I had it working well with asi294, but just can’t seem to dial it in on asi2600. The 2600 gives much cleaner images, but I’ll revert if it can’t fix it

I’m pretty sure it’s the off axis guider pickoff prism. It’s part of the struggle with a such a small light circle I have no way to avoid having it enter the image space.

Yes. Edge HD is a totally different animal, designed much more with photography in mind.

The 8”SCT is difficult to work with. It has a narrow image circle, I’ve got an off access guider taking up a lot of space. Also there’s no adjustment with the field flattener I’m using, so I’m having to work with different combinations of spacers to move it, I moved it 2 mm’s, and it got worse.

Thank you!

Capture details: 30 Lights @ 360 seconds, 20 Darks, 10 Flats, and 100 bias frames. Celestron AVX mount, Celestron 8in SCT with flattener/reducer, ZWO ASI2600mc pro, Optolong L-eNhance filter, and ZWO ASI220mm mini guide camera.

Interestingly, we have trouble accurately gauging the distances to closer galaxies. The Bad Astronomer explains that in this blog post. badastronomy.beehiiv.com/p/jwsts-view...

This one was imaged over two nights Apr 17&18, I rolled with the 80% moon because the weather here has been so rainy I didn’t want to let even a marginal night go. Also a tough one to process with the high dynamic range, lots of masked stretching, but I’m reasonably happy with the result.

Capture detail: 70 Lights @ 180seconds, 20 Darks, 20 Flats, and 100 bias frames. Celestron AVX mount, Apertura 60mm FPL-53 doublet with flattener, ZWO ASI2600mc pro, and ZWO ASI120mm mini guide camera.