The Mak and the CG-5

Since getting the Meade ETX 125, I'd wanted to try take photos of the sky using it.  When I got the C6-NGT, I suddenly had a good mount to try it!

Since the ETX 125 OTA already has a mounting block with dual 1/4-20 holes in it, I just had to find an adapter to marry the scope to the CG-5.  Luckily, ScopeStuff sells just the thing!

Given how much slower the Meade mak (f/15) is to the Celestron newt (f/5), it's not a surprise that the images produced by the mak were much "dimmer".  All things equal, from the camera's perspective (exposure length, ISO), the C6 produced much brighter images.

What I don't recall, and what will necessitate another trip out with the mak, is how much coma was present.

My first shot with the mak and CG-5 was Albireo:

Albireo - Double star in Cygnus

I don't have a good grip on photographing stars yet.

My second shot was a single frame of M57:

Messier 57 - Planetary nebula in Lyra

As an experiment, I decided to do a comparison between a 30 second exposure and a 60 second exposure with all other things being equal:

Messier 57 - Planetary nebula in Lyra

Once I get an autoguider, I'd like to try thing experiment again, bumping up the exposure time incrementally to see how things are affected.

The C6-NGT's First Terrible Pictures

A couple of days after I took my brandy new C6-NGT out for first light, I decided to try hook up my DSLR to it.  The first series of pics weren't great, entirely due to a hasty and beginner's alignment.  The exposures were about 30 seconds each.

My first shot was of M13, a globular cluster in Hercules.

M13 - Globular cluster in Hercules

Compared to my first shot of M13 using the MallinCam, this image's detail is much higher, but trailing is clearly visible from a lousy equatorial alignment.  I was still quite excited about my first shot, though, on a real equatorial platform.

I then decided to slew over to M57 in Lyra.

M57 - Planetary nebula in Lyra

Just like the first shot of M13, field rotation from a bad alignment is obvious; even more so in this picture... I wonder if I bumped the mount after my first imaging of M13.  However, the color from this picture was great.

Overall, I was quite satisfied and excited about my first outing with a more capable beginners imaging set up!