Celestron C9.25 and Takahashi EM-200 Astrophotography Test

I evaluated the imaging performance of my Celestron C9.25 XLT on my EM-200 on April 29 and 30, 2011. I had purchased the OTA on Astromart for visual observing. It has performed very well as a visual astronomy tube, and I thought that I should check its imaging potential. The C9.25 at f/10 without field flattener produced star images with typical, but manageable, SCT bloat as expected. However, galaxy imaging performance was much better than I had anticipated. Mirror movement over the evening appeared to have neglible effect on 2 to 5 minute exposures. Good images were obtained using the internal tracking CCD with my ST-10XME or using a guidescope with a separate guide camera (Vixen 60x700 guidescope with Orion Starshoot autoguider run with Maxim DL 5 guiding software.)

Object: M65 in Leo Equipment: Celestron C9.25 XLT on Takahashi EM-200 mount with Vixen 60X700 guidescope for some images; SBIG ST-10XME. Some images guided with internal guiding chip. Some images with Orion Starshoot Autoguider on external guidescope. Exposure/Processing: 15 minutes RGB each 2x2 binning (180sec exposures); 25 minutes L (120 and 300 sec exposures). Processed Maxim DL and Photoshop. Location/Date: Gainesville, Florida / April 29-30, 2011	Object: NGC 3628 in Leo Equipment: Celestron C9.25 XLT on Takahashi EM-200 mount. SBIG ST-10XME. Exposures guided with internal guiding chip. Exposure/Processing: 10 minutes RGB each 2x2 binning (120sec exposures); 33 minutes L (300 and 600 sec exposures). Processed Maxim DL and Photoshop. Location/Date: Gainesville, Florida / April 29-30, 2011
Object: M63 in Canes Venatici Equipment: Celestron C9.25 XLT on Takahashi EM-200 mount. SBIG ST-10XME. Exposures guided with internal guiding chip. Exposure/Processing: 10 minutes RGB each 2x2 binning (120sec exposures); 21 minutes L (300 sec exposures). Processed Maxim DL and Photoshop. Location/Date: Gainesville, Florida / April 29-30, 2011	Celestron C9.25 XLT on Takahashi EM-200 with SBIG ST-10XME. Vixen 60x700 guidescope with Orion Starshoot Autoguider on rings mounted to Losmandy DUP plate.

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