This hard-to-catch target, the Antennae Galaxies, presented a very small size in my current field of view, but they were still worth the imaging time. My plan is to change my current Takahashi FSQ-85ED telescope for my longer focal length Altair Astro 8" RC telescope at the end of this month. However, I needed a time-filler - a target to image to not waste the clear nights, and this was it.
NGC4038-NGC4039 Antennae Galaxies and NGC4027 Galaxy in LRGB
Given that I did not expect to be able to image this target for very long, I decided to cut down my usual number of exposures per filter for a target of this type. Instead of 100 exposures in Luminance and then 50 exposures in Red, Green and Blue, I opted for 50 exposures in Luminance and 25 exposures per colour filter. Given my usual 10 minute exposure times, this led to a total imaging time of 20 hours and 50 minutes. Not a bad amount for a time-fillter, essentially.
The end result, after careful post-processing, is very pleasing indeed. I was able to extract a ton of information from the galactic cores, especially given the short imaging focal length of 450 mm. I certainly look forward to attacking this target once again after my Altair Astro 8" RC telescope has been set up. I plan to use it at its native 1625 mm focal length at f/8. I will see how that fairs before I decide if to use the Astro-Physics CCDT67 Telecompressor.
The end result, after careful post-processing, is very pleasing indeed. I was able to extract a ton of information from the galactic cores, especially given the short imaging focal length of 450 mm. I certainly look forward to attacking this target once again after my Altair Astro 8" RC telescope has been set up. I plan to use it at its native 1625 mm focal length at f/8. I will see how that fairs before I decide if to use the Astro-Physics CCDT67 Telecompressor.