Guiding into the Whirlpool

The Whirlpool Galaxy (M51) with a William Optics Redcat 250mm f/4.9 telescope, with a Baader Sky Glow filter, and ZWO ASI 533MC Pro. Focal length and exposure time are short for this target, but I'm taking advantage of the clear skies to come up to speed with guiding on my new mount (Sky-Watcher AZ EQ5 Pro). Twenty-nine 3 minute exposures stacked on for a total of 87 minutes of exposure. Processed in Pixinsight, Topaz DeNoise, and Photoshop.

Learning to use this new mount is a pleasure. With plate solving on the ZWO ASIAIR moving from target to target is fast and easy. I'm gradually learning how to tune my guiding. I visited 3 other targets last night and am backlogged processing the data. I'm very happy with the new Y adapter mount for the ASIAIR and the guide scope and have a good cabling setup.

My next steps are adding a router so that I can control the scope from inside and setting up the automatic meridian flip. Chris Montemayor has been a great mentor, getting me up to speed on the mount. Here is my new kit in action:

Content created: 2021-03-07

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