Messier 31, the Andromeda Galaxy, shot with the William Optics 51mm RedCat astrograph, mounted on the Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer 2i tracker as

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Messier 31, the Andromeda Galaxy, shot with the William Optics 51mm RedCat astrograph, mounted on the Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer 2i tracker as a test of the combination of small refractor and small tracker for an ultra-portable setup. It worked well but the tracker had to be autoguided for the best results and minimal trailing when shooting at even the relatively short focal length as this (250mm) for a small telescope. I used the ZWO ASIAir and guidescope for autoguiding in right ascension (no declination correction is possible with such a tracker). This is a stack of 18 x 2-minute exposures at ISO 3200 with the Canon EOS Ra — a high ISO to keep exposures times down to minimize any trailing in declination from misalignment on the celestial pole. The combination worked well. Some high haze moved in during the last exposures. This was from home October 11, 2020.

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Size: 5400px × 3592px
Photo credit: © Alan Dyer / VWPics / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: 2i, 51mm, adventurer, andromeda, asiair, astrograph, autoguider, binocular, canon, eos, filter, galaxy, guiding, high, m31, messier, optics, pass, ra, redcat, sky-watcher, spiral, star, starshrink, telephoto, test, tracker, william, zwo