Equipment used
Xubuntu laptop running AstroDMx Capture for Linux.
Fedora Linux laptop running PHD2, multi-star pulse auto-guiding.
Skywatcher HEQ5 GOTO mount.
SVBONY SV165 Guide-scope D=30mm F=120mm.
Eklipse Ekinox ED F=440mm, 80mm, f/5.5 refractor.
QHY 5L-II-M guide camera.
Atik 314L mono, cooled 16-bit CCD imaging camera.
JJC DHS-1 USB Lens Heater Strip Dew Remover.
Object for imaging
M51, the Whirlpool galaxy.
The imaging kit
The imaging kit, Fedora auto-guiding laptop and Xubuntu imaging laptop
An INDI server was run with PHD2 on the Fedora Linux laptop to do multi-star, pulse auto-guiding
Screenshot of PHD2 multi-star, pulse auto-guiding
Multi-star PHD2 auto-guiding was used during the capture of the M51 data.
AstroDMx Capture for Linux was used to capture 10 x 10min FITS exposures of M51 with matching dark-frames using the Atik 314L CCD camera.
Screenshot of AstroDMx Capture for Linux capturing images of M51
The images were stacked in Deep Sky Stacker using dark frames and flat-fields, and post processed in Affinity Photo, The Gimp 2.10 and Neat Image.
M51
With the Skywatcher HEQ5 GOTO mount, PHD multi-star auto-guiding produced good results with no movement between or within images.
The use of flat-fields was very important because there is significant variation in the sensitivity of different regions of the CCD sensor in this old CCD camera.
The master-flat derived from 50 flat-fields
The dark regions are easily visible in this partially stretched master-flat. Using the flat-fields to calibrate the captured data eliminates the sensitivity variation in the stacked image.
