09/09/2024 – The Triangulum Galaxy

Another clear night. That’s two in a row! Clear and cool, a little bit of haze off to the east, that cleared up a bit later. Another nice night to look up. This is the first time I have done an “unattended” session… After polar alignment and initial focus I kicked off the NINA Sequence and let it go. Captured 30 minutes of T CrB and then 4 hours of M33, the Triangulum Galaxy. After the capturing 80 x 180 seconds of exposures the scoped parked and the camera warmed. I set up an alternate park position to park the scope with the front objective lens facing down, hoping to keep the dew and dust off… it worked out great! I only checked on it a couple of times.

Primary (Imaging) Secondary (Guiding)
Scope: SVBONY SV503 102ED
Reducer/Flattener: 0.8 Focal Reducer/Flattener (~570mm – F/5.6)
Filter: None
Camera: ZWO ASI294 MC Pro, Cooled to -10 C
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Mount: Sky Watcher EQ6-R Pro
Scope: SVBONY SV106 60mm Guide Scope
Camera: Orion Star Shooter Autoguider (OSSAG)
Telescope Control, Image Acquisition, and Image Processing Software
Equipment Control and Imaging Software: NINA/PHD2/ASCOM on a Mini-PC
Processing Software: GraXpert, Siril astronomical image processing tool, Siril’s Interactive Companion (Sirilic)

After dark I cooled down the camera to -10, checked the polar alignment, it was pretty close but I dialed it in a bit, and then did an initial autofocus run. At 9 PM I kicked off the NINA Sequence. The NINA sequence captured 30 minutes (15 x 120 seconds) of T CrB. The scope then slewed over to Messier 33 to capture light for a few hours. I got the grandkid ready for bed, watched some TV, and went to sleep. About 4 1/2 hours after starting the sequence the scope parked and the camera warmed.

Messier 33 (M33), the Triangulum Galaxy, in the constellation of Triangulum. This is 80 x 180 second exposures, 4 hours total, at 121 gain, 30 offset, and bin 2×2. Exposures were stacked with darks using Sirilic. Background extraction and denoising with GraXpert. Final processing with Siril.
Messier 33, M33, Triangulum Galaxy, 80 x 180 seconds on 09/09/2024
M33 is about 3.2 Million Light Years away and has diameter of about 61,100 Light Years. It is about 70% the size of Milky Way and is home to around 40 billion stars.
It could use flats as there are a couple of dust motes… but over all I think it looks pretty nice. I like looking at it anyway.

This set it and forget it set up makes it a bit easier to look up on a school night… so more to come. I’ll write up a post on how I set up the park position in the next couple days.

Clear skies.

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