Clear night

Was able to sneak in a few hours of astrophotography this evening. My son had a friend sleep over and both had fun looking at Saturn before heading inside. I had some trouble getting the mount aligned tonight for some reason. The goto function was horribly off. I did a complete restart, and things seemed ok after that. First target, M5.  Shot 13x25" subs with corresponding dark frames.  I then swung around for M61 (spiral galaxy) and shot 21x25" subs with corresponding dark frames. Can't wait to get these into stacking and post processing.

Messier 13

Great Globular Cluster in Hercules
This cluster was first discovered in 1714 by Edmond Halley.  It has about 300,000 stars and is 100 light years from earth.  In 1974, we (humans) sent the Arecibo message, containing encoded information about human race, DNA, atomic numbers, Earth position, to this cluster for an extraterrestrial civilization to pick up.  It will reach the cluster in 25,000 years!

First real attempt at true astrophotography in terms of taking light frames, dark frames, stacking images and post processing.  The coma is very apparent around the edges of the photo and will need to be addressed at some time in the future.  Also, there is a very faint galaxy in the picture.  Can you find it?

Moon Shot

Shot this picture the same night as M3. 

Astrophotography - 1st Attempt

First attempt at piggybacked astrophotography on the new VX mount.  Messier 3.