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Last night I imaged M102 The Spindle Galaxy. It is located in Draco. I was able to capture 135 images of 2 minutes using 11 inch SCT and ZWO ASI2600. I set camera to 2 minute exposures with 0 deg C and gain of 100. I also took 50 flats (0.15 sec). I am having problems with my Falcon rotator since installing newer version of SGP so I did not use rotation during platesolving. SGP seems to send the rotator to various angles. I will have to troubleshoot the rotator for future imaging sessions.

It was a nice night. Tracking was generally good all night. I did de-select several images with higher eccentricity than normal.

M102 is an edge on lenticular galaxy. It is about 50 million light years from Earth and has an apparent magnitude of 10.7. It is one of the brightest galaxies in the NGC 5866 group of galaxies.

I used Pixinsight for all image processing. I also tried a new noise reduction process 'noisexterminator'. It does a great job of eliminating noise but does add some artifacts so I am still working on it.

One process that works well with this type of object is HDR. This process emphasizes the difference between dark and light areas. It also allows you to try out different settings before you commit to the one best suited.

Roger
M102 with 25% crop.

Not sure why there are 3 images. The first two are the same.

Roger

With its apparent size of only 4.7' X 1.9' I wouldn't even try for The Spindle. Very nice Rog.