This is my first trial to catch M31 with the C9. M31 is big and for big lenses even huge. There was no chance to get M31 completely on a frame. I just aimed at the core and waited for the result which is somewhat disappointing. The vignetting by the focal reducer is quite high. I could use only an area of 20 mm diameter of the negative. The outskirts of M31 and NGC205 vanish in the dark of the vignetting.

Date: 12 September 1999, 23.00h CET

Lens: f=1480 mm f/6.3

Guiding: manually with C5 at 139x

Exposure time: 30 minutes

Film: Kodak Royal Gold 400

The mount was a little bit unbalanced in that way that the motor had to pull in RA. As a result the tracking accuracy was very good and only very few corrections were necessary. The stars are nearly round dots although the magnification for guiding was relatively low, only 139x.