Messier 80 - Globular cluster in Scorpio

[ionia23]

Object: Messier Object 80
Common Name: none
Object Type: Globular cluster
Object Location: Scorpius Constellation
Magnitude: 7.87
Distance: 32,600 light years
Imaging Date: 03-02-2022
Imaging Location: Tucson, AZ
Telescope: Orion SkyView Pro 8" (203mm) reflector
Mount: Orion Atlas equatorial
Guiding Camera: Orion Starshoot Autoguider ST-4, direct to mount.
Guiding software: PHD2
Imaging Camera: Orion Starshoot G4 Color
Filters: none

Image information:
50 x 10s exposures (8 minutes integration time)
50 flats, 250 bias, 50 darks

I know what I'm doing has been done by so many others, but I'm feeling a bit proud of myself. I had a goal dating all the way back to 2003 when I first took a crack at astrophotography. One day I wanted to get a satisfactory image (to me, at least) of all 110 Messier objects. I started really pushing for this in earnest back in December of 2020. The end is in sight, as I'm down to the last 20.

I have to say, of all the improvements in Startools 8, the one that impresses me the most is the SV Decon module. I never really appreciated what atmospheric distortion does to images until I saw them pretty much removed by this module. Didn't even have to tweak any of the settings. That and the HDR module make processing globular clusters much easier.

I think this came out pretty good. I might be getting the hang of this.

[Mike in Rancho]

Congrats! Only 20 to go! That'll make a nice set of collages, perhaps.

I haven't tried anything so organized, and would have to just go through my images to see what M's I may have captured randomly. A mere pittance, I'm afraid.