M94 in LRGB with RGB Stars on a limited sky budget

Between time spent tuning the FLT132 and limited clear skies, I was still able to pull together a few subs to produce my first M94 photo. Not bad for less than 2 hours integration. You can see that I am playing with exposure lengths to settle in on future levels. Having a few issues with the OAG guide setup losing the guide star, so I'll continue to tune that. This and trying some 15 min exposures (that mostly star trailed due to the guide star drops) cost me a few hours of subs. Clouds rolled in ahead of original forecast and left me with the small sub count, especially RGB.

The HAE43EC has been stellar with guiding often below 0.5 total RMS without much effort and on these average seeing nights. Can't wait to set it loose on a great seeing night. I am now planning to replace my GT81 mount (EQ6R-Pro) with the HAE29EC. Ping me if you are looking to own a pristine EQ6R-Pro.

I also used a portion of this shoot to redo auto-focus backlash and filter offsets. Turns out I was way off before, but it didn't really show until I hit the narrow band filters. I still need to run offset calcs for OIII and SII.

Hope you enjoy this bit of M94 exposure. Clear Skies.

T.

Sessions

Total Integration Time:

April 24, 2023 - 6 * 130.0 seconds
Chroma Blue 36 mm
April 24, 2023 - 3 * 100.0 seconds
Chroma Green 36 mm
April 24, 2023 - 37 * 20.0 seconds
Chroma Lum 36 mm
April 24, 2023 - 47 * 40.0 seconds
Chroma Lum 36 mm
April 24, 2023 - 4 * 200.0 seconds
Chroma Red 36 mm

Catalogues

Messier New General Catalogue

Targets

M94 NGC4736

Gear

Telescope: William Optics FLT 132
Camera: ZWO ASI2600MM
Mount: iOptron HAE43EC