M51 Whirlpool galaxy

Got in 2 hours of Rosette in hydrogen alpha tonight 

What camera do you use Phunnie?

ZWO ASI 1600 MM-C. Actually here's a pic of my entire setup, but with nothing plugged in.

• EQ6R
• 130PDS
• ZWO autofocuser and filterwheel
• zwo 290mm for the guider
• arbitrary 60mm guidescope
• Quattro coma corrector
• arbitrary pc
• thousand oaks dew heater control and some arbitrary dew heater bands

Nice setup, bet that cost a pretty penny.

Do you have a heater on the secondary mirror? My friend's scope only gets dew on that mirror, primary hasn't had issues as of yet.

No I do not, and I've never had issues on the secondary. Only the primary dewed so far, so I've put a heater band around that one (though tbh, I don't know how effective that is.)

I wonder if you can get them for the secondary or not? 

Yes you can!

https://www.bintel.com.au/product/kendr ... 2b26af01d5

Reflectors seem to require a lot of maintenance which is why I never got one (plus no way to get a properly oriented view.)  I stick to refractors and CATs (SCT and MAK).

Rosette Nebula in SHO ~7h

That's absolutely beautiful, Phunnie. I love the colors, and that blue-green center makes me think of tropical waters, or of Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone.

Fighting clouds, I just managed to catch Venus passing through the Pleiades. I'm sure there will be much better images than this, but I was glad to catch it.

I watched it through binoculars last night, but didn't bother to rig up anything for photography.  The weather was very good, and I'm glad I remembered to look for it.

Took some pictures of the sun today, here.