20210906 - M33 (TRI) The Triangulum Galaxy - Up close and personal. First light TS140, first time mono …

What was the experience
Every start is difficult, but you progress in small steps, and eventually, you are a long way ahead … 😉
I had set up the TS140 on my CEM70G mount, replacing the TS94. Installed filter wheel, mono camera … the lot. The first impression: it’s a BIG scope … 😮
So how did the first try-out go? Oh, just the usual hick-ups 😱: Cable snag, scope hitting the mount (because he is so much bigger, and the filter wheel is sticking out), mount not wanting to execute the meridian flip (scope was pointing vertical, and according to the ASIAIR, I still had 5 hours to go), filter wheel not triggering automatic focus when changing filters, another couple of cable snags (at one time the cables dragging some of the plants out of their pots, and hooking itself around the power extension wheel and dragging that along … in spite of me sitting next to it and keeping an eye open) …. Still … a good ‘learning experience’ … right! 🤪
So, the immediate action was to re-build the rig and set the tri-pier higher … a lot!
My imaging train was also suffering from the OAG sticking out too much in front of the sensor, which wasn’t helpful in the processing, with all kinds of noisy gradients popping up.
Only 8x 600s subs on each filter (LRGB), the night wasn’t long enough to do more.
First time mono-processing needed a bit of getting used to, but with the right scripts, the LRGB batch processing went fast enough, instead of having to do all filters manually.
Still, because the OAG is sticking out there’s a lot that can still be improved.
Oh … and Yes … I specifically left the satellite trail in there … as they seem to be so fond of messing up our darks skies and hitting on M33 😂

What’s in the picture(s)
M33 (TRI) - The Triangulum Galaxy - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangulum_Galaxy
Quote: “The Triangulum Galaxy is a spiral galaxy 2.73 million light-years (ly) from Earth in the constellationTriangulum. It is catalogued as Messier 33 or NGC 598. The Triangulum Galaxy is the third-largest member of the Local Group of galaxies, behind the Andromeda Galaxy and the Milky Way. It is one of the most distant permanent objects that can be viewed with the naked eye.”

How it was done
Scope: TS-140 APO (FL 910mm / with x1.0 flattener)
Mount: CEM70G
Camera: ASI2600MM Pro
Guiding: ZWO OAG, ZWO ASI174MM, ASIAIR Pro - avg 0.50”
Filter: ZWO EFW - LRGB Baader
Resolution: 0,85”/pixel, FoV 107’
Moon: 1%(-), Bortle 5/6 SQM 19.60
Photons:  Gain 100 -10c 600s 8x 4x (LRGB)
Darks 8x
Processing: PixInsight (Mac)
Astrobin: 

What have I learned from this
A bigger scope needs a higher pier … really? … Yes, it does! 👍
Don’t put plants next to your scope … who came up with that idea? 👍
Have the tranquillizer ready for your heart when the scope hits the mount … I’ve never been so quick at pushing the buttons on the hand controller 👍
I definitely need to improve my processing skills 😎
It’s a new first for me .. there may be room for improvement, but the basis is there. It’s another step forward on the road

Clear Skies everybody! 🤩✨🔭

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