M63 / NGC 5055 - Sunflower Galaxy (Alex)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Canes Venatici (CVn) · Contains: M 63 · NGC 5055 · Sunflower Galaxy

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M63 / NGC 5055 - Sunflower Galaxy

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M63 / NGC 5055 - Sunflower Galaxy

This is my first light with my new ZWO AM5 mount. I've enjoyed my Celestron AVX Mount and it has served me so well over the years, giving many great experiences and images, but it was time for an upgrade.

I'm still tinkering with the PHD2 settings for the mount to see how good I can get the tracking, but out of the box, with the basic recommendations I've read online, it worked really well to start. It is definitely an upgrade to the AVX.

With my AVX I typically was able to use 80% of my subs (throwing away 1 hour of subs in a 5 hour night). With the AM5 I was able to use 96%, so definitely better and more consistent, at least on my first light. We'll see if the trend continues. I still have to review the PHD2 logs to see if anything unusual happened, but based on 96% sub retention (109 out of 113 subs), it appears things went fairly smoothly. Not to mention a much easier Polar Alignment. The adjustment knobs on the AM5 are so much smoother and easier than the AVX.

For the first target for the AM5, I chose the Sunflower Galaxy. With fine tuning the guiding/tracking as much as I could the first night, I could only snag 3.5 hours of subs. I'll add more later including Ha.

CMOS Imagers
The OSC Club (One Shot Camera)
Messier Objects
Cooled Color Cams
Light Polluted skies
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N.I.N.A. Users
ZWO ASI 294MC PRO
Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescope (SCT) Imagers
Imaged with N.I.N.A.
Canadian Astrophotography
Deep Sky Northern Hemisphere
C8 XLT Celestron Deep Space
Broadband under Bortle 7/8/9

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Astrometry.net job	9811102
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M63 / NGC 5055 - Sunflower Galaxy

M63 / NGC 5055 - Sunflower Galaxy

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M63 / NGC 5055 - Sunflower Galaxy

M63 / NGC 5055 - Sunflower Galaxy

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