Using the F/15 Maksutov as an astrograph

The F/15, 2700mm focal length 18cm aperture Maksutov is never intended to capture deep-sky images. Instead it excell’s at planets and the Moon.

However, with this focal length, it makes sense to give it a try at small objects like galaxies.

This is what came out of it, as a test, stacking 40 subs of 300s at gain 0. That’s 3 hours and 20 minutes. The detail is ok, what I noticed are triangular stars so I need to take a look at the collimation, seems to tight.

M66, Maksutov 180mm F/15 43x300s ASI2600MC

Compared to what my C11 did with an ASI183mm RGB last year:

M66, C11 F10 46x120s at G111 ASI183mm RGB

M109 galaxy in Ursa Major

This galaxy lies very very close to one of the bright stars of the bowl.

An integration on several nights with 60-second subs at gain 0. This resulted in a lot of (read-?) noise. I should experiment further with Gain 100.

M109 Ursa Major Esprit 120mm F7 no flattener ASI2600MC 360x60s Gain 0 Offset 50 no flats ; darks, bias

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