[Paramount]

Hi all

I thought I would have another go at this galaxy, except this time use the Starlight Xpress H9 for a bigger image scale and also to try out my new toy, an LVI smartguider (yes you heard right this is an auto guided image). Because of the light pollution where I live I don't really get the best out of RGB imaging, but as my house is still in the way of the splendours that cygnus has to offer and my neighbours tree is blocking Cepheus for at least another month I don't really have a lot of narrow band targets to go for at the moment. This is made up of 14x4 minutes Red, 9x4 minutes Green and 15x4 minutes Blue, I would have liked longer subframes but with a half moon present, the light pollution and sky glow I would have been pushing my luck. Some very bright satellite and aeroplane streaks put paid to the other subframes (I didn't realise they showed up so bright with RGB imaging as they are normally fairly faint with NB). Again I would have prefered more but with a 3 hour imaging window at this time of year I have to be grateful for what I get. If anybody can tell me what the faint streak is in the bottom right of the picture I would be grateful as I haven't been able to find it yet. Thanks for looking, I have put a very short article about the smart guider in the miscellaneous section of the equipment page on my website Imaging The Heavens - Home Page which I will be adding to at a later date, it is very easy to use.

Best wishes

Gordon