For the first test of my new ZWO ASI2600MC camera, I needed a somewhat easy target. With all of the famous galaxies done already for the year, I picked M100, the “Blowdryer galaxy.” Not too dim or large, it turned out really well. The colored rings problem I had been having are gone, so that must have been something going on inside my old DSLR, as I kind of expected. The image isn’t great, as I fiddled with my collimation when I shouldn’t have, and guiding was being a little disagreeable.
I decided on four minute exposures since the new camera has such a deep well. I also cooled it to 0°F while the low for the night was in the 30s. The noise on it was incredibly lower than the DSLR! I could see so much detail in the target in only a single sub. I used my softbox to take flats, which probably wasn’t the best idea, but the results were pretty workable.
This is only 60 exposures.
