M100 Widefield (First Light ASI2600MC)

This first light image for the ADI2600 is just under two hours and yet it was much more detailed than I was expecting for this integration - the galaxies show an amazing amount of detail if you zoom in. The field of view has an extraordinary amount of galaxies including seven Messier Galaxies which is not surprising since looking into the Virgo Galaxy Cluster. Messier 100 or M100 is a lovely spiral galaxy located at the center of my field. On the lower right is a line of galaxies known as Markarian's Chain named after Armenian astrophysicist Benjamin Markarian, who discovered their common motion. I have attached an annotated image showing some of the larger galaxies but many more are also found hiding in the image.

I purchased this camera to be part of a portable setup to use with camera lenses, in particular the Canon EF 200mm f/2.8L II USM mounted on the iOptron SkyGuider Pro which I already own. To run everything I will use the ASIair which is on order, I already use one to run the Edge and have been very happy with it. This system is so compact that I may be able to take it on the airplane without too much fanfare.

I was going back and forth with this camera and the ASI533 which is significantly cheaper but with less than half the FOV. Ultimately the ASI2600MC won out since I wanted to do larger FOV imaging in the first place. Other plans for this setup include doing milky way shots with landscapes which I am not sure are easy to do with an astrocam and attaching this to the Edge when I do hyperstar imaging.

All in all I am happy so far but I should mention that the exposure file size for this APS size camera is ~50,000 KB which makes stacking times noticeably longer. For reference my ASI294 file size is 23,000 KB and my ASI1600 file size is 32,000 KB. ZWO has a full frame camera, ASI6200, I can only imagine the stacking time...

M100 Widefield (First Light ASI2600MC)

Dates: 4-10 & 4-29
Camera: ZWO ASI2600MC-Pro
Telescope: Canon EF 200mm f/2.8L II USM Lens
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 200mm
f/4 with stepdown rings
Focal Reducer: None
Mount: Orion Sirius
Filter Wheel/Drawer: ZWO EOS Filter Drawer
Filter: Baader UV/IR
Focuser: None
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to a ZWO Mini 30/120mm Guidescope
Exposure: 57 x 30, 39 x 90
Gain: 139
Offset 20
Sensor Temp: -10 C
Processing: NINA, PixInsight, Photoshop, Topaz DeNoiseAI, StarXTerminator, Gradiant Xterminator.

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