I Pointed the Skywatcher Virtuoso 150 at the Cigar galaxy for 13 hours!

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]So, I'm getting set up um for today. Um I'm going to get out my stuff and start setting up for tonight session. I'm going for this year 82.

[00:00:11]And yeah, let's get all the stuff.

[00:00:32]SV2 filter and cables, camera cables and power.

[00:00:45]Now I'm going to connect I have this extension here. I'm going to connect it to power.

[00:00:55]Okay. Now we can plug in uh the circle.

[00:00:58]This one now it's time to connect the camera and the reducer.

[00:01:18]Okay, so this is my SV75C.

[00:01:24]Before starting, I make sure it's clean.

[00:01:27]There's no dust on the sensor and there's not.

[00:01:31]So, if you've watched my other video, you know what's going to happen. Now, I'm going to start adding spacers. 16 mm.

[00:01:47]There's a bit of wind today. It's getting all my stuff.

[00:01:54]Everything's flying.

[00:01:57]I hope it will not interfere with the session.

[00:02:01]And this make sure it's no not dusty.

[00:02:03]I'm going to I'm going to give it a quick wipe.

[00:02:10]My reducer is pretty clean, so I'm not getting dirt all around.

[00:02:17]I keep all my optics clean. It's only minor dust that I have right here.

[00:02:29]Next, we have the CA camera angle adjuster.

[00:02:37]Then we have the nose piece.

[00:02:41]And like that, it's set up, ready to go.

[00:02:44]Close the box.

[00:02:49]Put everything in the box so it doesn't fly away.

[00:02:54]Yeah.

[00:02:59]Let's put this here.

[00:03:01]And next we get the fuel and balance it and level it. Sorry. And balance as well.

[00:03:08]I put the here and plug the wire in.

[00:03:18]But I turn off the mount so it's not working for nothing.

[00:03:27]The tube is balanced. I left it as it was the last session. So I know it's balanced. I'm going to do next is level it.

[00:03:37]I have two levels.

[00:03:40]I put this under the feet so it brings it up a bit and uh it's easier to balance.

[00:04:15]That's more perfect at all. So there plug it in the laptop.

[00:04:41]Same goes for the camera.

[00:04:59]Okay.

[00:05:19]And yeah, that's everything set up. As you can see, it doesn't take long, maybe 10 minutes. So, that's why I love it also. It's very easy to set up.

[00:05:32]So, tonight I'm going for Messier 82 and the Starburst Galaxy. It will rise somewhere around there. I mean, not rise, it will be somewhere around there. Um, I'm using the this Vony 705C with the back focus. I I told you last time 33.5 mm and focal reducer with the camera angle adjuster so we can turn it.

[00:06:07]I columnated the telescope so it's perfectly columnated at the moment. Um it's important to note that you need to columnate the telescope at this position. Um, so with the trust rods down like this, not and not cate when the truss rods are up. So you get an accurate columnation and yeah um there's some clouds at the moment. You cannot see them but I can see them with my with my eyes. And yeah, I will wait a bit and plug in everything. I have my laptop and I'm going to be using it's already do up this one. I'm going to be using the SVOS V220 to 0 narrow band filter because the Messier 82 galaxy is a very rich in hydrogen alpha because it's a starburst galaxy meaning it has a lot of star formation and stuff like that. So, want to capture those deep reds with the narrow band filter. But yeah, I'm going to set up everything and start up sync scan and sharp cap.

[00:07:24]So, we're going to Jupiter now, which is this that star there.

[00:07:35]It was turning.

[00:07:39]Okay.

[00:07:41]No, I cannot see Jupiter on the screen.

[00:07:51]I think I can see it here. Jupiter actually.

[00:07:57]Yes. Whitey Jupiter.

[00:08:11]Okay, next one. Alkide. Alkaed is in the oro major constellation if I'm not mistaken.

[00:08:20]So the telescope has to turn to the north side which is somewhere there.

[00:08:28]This is the last star we are aligning on. And then we'll I will insert the narrow band filter and I will image me with narrow band will be my first time doing this narrow band.

[00:08:45]I think it's that one.

[00:08:49]What What do I always tell you? Yes. Always verify.

[00:08:56]Never trust your judgment. And it's that one. Yes.

[00:09:08]Three star alignment works a lot better.

[00:09:10]I found before I I could have sworn that two star alignment was better, but no.

[00:09:16]And three star and make making sure that the mount is properly leveled. As you can see, I have some sticks underneath the legs. So, it's properly leveled.

[00:09:26]So yeah, I'm going to let it let the mount stabilize a bit and then I will go to M82.

[00:09:34]So uh at the moment I am at 260 minutes of exposure.

[00:09:42]As you can see, it's a whole mess of cropping and um even the colors are very off. But I think you'll be surprised when I show you how it looks on Zill.

[00:09:58]This is an auto stretch obviously. And as you can see, there are there are the faint uh red red lanes cuz this is a starburst galaxy which means it's kind of exploding with star formation.

[00:10:19]And it's really really cool. And I'm using narrow band for this. And and as you can see, the Galaxy comes through still with narrow band. So I don't even have to combine RGB data with narrow band. I can just do narrow band and be done with it.

[00:10:39]Yeah.

[00:10:41]So it's pretty cool. And this is just field rotation and stuff like that. It's you have to think about that this is mount and it's been pointing at the same target for 260 minutes and the sky is rotating and I have been rotating the camera to counteract it but I need to go to sleep and stuff like that between and and I miss some some rotating cuz I cannot stay awake all night but Yeah, I I only need this central part. I don't care about the outer areas. So, it's it's good for me like this. I don't need the other parts.

[00:11:28]But yeah, I think uh I will stay a bit longer and then I'm going to process the data. I don't know if I'm going for the dumpel nebula maybe cuz it's getting a bit low now the cigar galaxy. So maybe I'll jump to the dumple nebula. I don't know.

[00:11:49]But I'm going to leave it as long as I can on the secret Galaxy.

[00:11:54]So I'll just um get a ton of data and maybe I will do another night on it cuz the narrow boundary needs a lot of data to get it less less noisy. But yeah, it's looking pretty good otherwise Heat. Heat.

[00:12:59]Heat. Heat. N.

[00:13:09]Heat. Heat. N.