Galaxy Quest — Loran Hughes Astrophotography

After a summer of smoke and then travel for my day job, I finally got the chance to put a new-to-me telescope through its paces. It didn’t disappoint.

A few weeks back, I found a used William Optics GT81 refractor. I cut my teeth on reflectors, so this is new territory for me. Its 478 mm focal length is the shortest that I’ve ever used.

Aligning my Celestron CGX mount was a magnitude easier with the shorter focal length. I found that the target star was always in my field of view - just center it in the camera image and move on to the next. Focus turned out to be the challenge. I almost couldn’t get enough back focus for my ZWO camera. With a bit of effort and stretching things to their limits, I finally got there - but I’ve ordered an additional extension tube for next time.

I was itching to view some galaxies, but first things first: it was International Observe the Moon Night. Besides, the moon gave me a great first target for the GT81.

With that out of the way, it was time to move on to some galaxies. I had my heart set on NGC 7331 in the Deer Lick Group. Once I found it, I realized I had plenty of field of view to include Stephan’s Quintet. I re-adjusted and got both groups.

Deer Lick Group on the left and Stephan’s Quintet in the lower right. The large spiral galaxy NGC 7331 is 40 million light years distant! 100 minute exposure.

By the time I finished the series of images, it was about 3 a.m. I decided against going to bed and slewed to the Andromeda Galaxy.

Andromeda and its small companion galaxy, Messier 32. Exposure time was a mere 36 minutes.

I’m totally sold on the small refractor and I’m looking forward to getting out with it again. Our fall and winter weather may have other plans though.

Clear skies!