M101 Galaxy under Bortle 1 skies with my Redcat 51 (Phil Hoppes)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Ursa Major (UMa) · Contains: HD122007 · HD122149 · HD122471 · HD122865 · HD123518 · HD238331 · M 101 · NGC 5422 · NGC 5447 · NGC 5449 · NGC 5450 · NGC 5451 · NGC 5453 · NGC 5455 · NGC 5457 · NGC 5461 · NGC 5462 · NGC 5471 · NGC 5473 · NGC 5474 · NGC 5477 · NGC 5484 · NGC 5485 · NGC 5486 · Pinwheel galaxy

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M101 Galaxy under Bortle 1 skies with my Redcat 51

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M101 Galaxy under Bortle 1 skies with my Redcat 51

I shot M101 just 2 weeks ago in Phoenix using my Redcat 51 telescope. The wife and I decided to head up north to our place in Overgaard Az and in checking the forecast the skies looked to be very clear so I packed up the Redcat and took it with me. I knew the skies here were quite dark but I technically did not know exactly how dark they actually were. I brought up my SQM meter and took some readings both at the start and the finish of my evening run. At the start the average was 22.75 and at the end 22.25. Given the Bortle scale stops at 22 for a Bortle 1 sky I'm guessing that makes me at Bortle -1. ;-)

Guiding with the AM5 was the best I've seen yet. All I did was get a good PA at the start (22" total error) check the focus and let it go. I use a WO 32mm Guide scope with a ASI290MM Mini camera. The AA+ Phd Log gave me these results:

Session RA Error. DEC Error. Total Error. PA. RunTime
1st 0.38" 0.36" 0.52" 0.0. 3h25m
2nd Temp Refocus 0.37" 0.34" 0.5" 0.8'. 45m
3rd Mer Flip 0.42" 0.38" 0.56" 0.0 2h55m
4th Temp Refocus 0.48" 0.37" 0.6" 0.9'. 1h15m

I've had my AM5 since October of last year and these are the best numbers I've seen yet. Very nice for such a small mount.

The shot itself, I actually did not use any filters. This is the very first DSO shot I have made at this location and when I saw how good the previews were and the fact that I knew the sky was so dark I figured what did I have to lose. In the future I will probably use a CLS filter at a minimum but I figured I did not have much to loose. I am quite pleased how dark the background is and the level of detail came out quite nice.

CS

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Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	7542879
PixInsight job	W5UZHIYCED4WYI7OJH6VQQYD2332N046
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	14h03m10s.29
RA (top/left)	14h11m07s.35
RA (top/right)	14h10m00s.60
RA (bottom/right)	13h54m49s.62
RA (bottom/left)	13h56m43s.81

Dec (center)	+54°19′35″.8
Dec (top/left)	+53°20′40″.2
Dec (top/right)	+55°30′06″.9
Dec (bottom/right)	+55°16′27″.7
Dec (bottom/left)	+53°07′42″.4

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M101 Galaxy under Bortle 1 skies with my Redcat 51

M101 Galaxy under Bortle 1 skies with my Redcat 51

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M101 Galaxy under Bortle 1 skies with my Redcat 51

M101 Galaxy under Bortle 1 skies with my Redcat 51

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