u/AstroFanM31

This galaxy season, I used the DWARF 3 smart telescope to capture six very different deep-sky targets (60s Gain 50 and 10h+ per image minimum)

M63 Sunflower Galaxy
M101 Pinwheel Galaxy
M51 Whirlpool Galaxy
M106
Markarian’s Chain
M81 Bode’s Galaxy

Each one taught me something different.

M51 is a great target because you can see the interaction between the Whirlpool Galaxy and its companion.

M101 was more of a patience test. It is large and face-on, but faint, so the signal really needs time to build.

M63 was more subtle. The Sunflower Galaxy does not jump out immediately, but the structure starts to appear with longer integration and careful processing.

M106 surprised me. It is not always the first galaxy people think of, but it is a very rewarding target with a strong core and nice structure.

Markarian’s Chain is probably the best “scale” image of the group. What looks like a field of small smudges is actually a field of galaxies.

M81 has become one of my favorite long-integration targets with the DWARF 3. It rewards more time, better stacking, and careful processing.

What I like about this project is that it shows what a small smart telescope can do when you move beyond quick captures and give the data time to build. These are not observatory-level images, of course, but from a compact setup under ordinary suburban skies, I think the DWARF 3 continues to surprise me.

For me, galaxy imaging is becoming less about a single final image and more about the process: collecting faint light, learning what longer integration does, improving the processing, and seeing how much structure can be pulled out of a small-aperture system.

Small telescope. Big universe.

Happy to share capture settings or processing notes if helpful. I’m still learning how far the DWARF 3 can be pushed on galaxy season targets. More details on https://dwarfastro.com

This galaxy season, I used the DWARF 3 smart telescope to capture six very different deep-sky targets (60s Gain 50 and 10h+ per image minimum)

M63 Sunflower Galaxy
M101 Pinwheel Galaxy
M51 Whirlpool Galaxy
M106
Markarian’s Chain
M81 Bode’s Galaxy

Each one taught me something different.

M51 is a great target because you can see the interaction between the Whirlpool Galaxy and its companion.

M101 was more of a patience test. It is large and face-on, but faint, so the signal really needs time to build.

M63 was more subtle. The Sunflower Galaxy does not jump out immediately, but the structure starts to appear with longer integration and careful processing.

M106 surprised me. It is not always the first galaxy people think of, but it is a very rewarding target with a strong core and nice structure.

Markarian’s Chain is probably the best “scale” image of the group. What looks like a field of small smudges is actually a field of galaxies.

M81 has become one of my favorite long-integration targets with the DWARF 3. It rewards more time, better stacking, and careful processing.

What I like about this project is that it shows what a small smart telescope can do when you move beyond quick captures and give the data time to build. These are not observatory-level images, of course, but from a compact setup under ordinary suburban skies, I think the DWARF 3 continues to surprise me.

For me, galaxy imaging is becoming less about a single final image and more about the process: collecting faint light, learning what longer integration does, improving the processing, and seeing how much structure can be pulled out of a small-aperture system.

Small telescope. Big universe.

Happy to share capture settings or processing notes if helpful. I’m still learning how far the DWARF 3 can be pushed on galaxy season targets. More details on https://dwarfastro.com

Learning and getting there it seems.

For all those of you who have tried FITS Studio, I just dropped another update - v5.16.

Improved the stretch code, added stretch warning indicators if one goes too aggressive, and added a post stretch image enhance set of features including Curves editor. Learned a lot in the process.

Still feel I'm too aggressive on the stretch, second image is a Snapseed edit from Stellar Studio for comparison. It's been a great learning tool for me. Hope it is for others as well.

Check it out on https://dwarfastro.com

General process I use is the following:

1. Load stacked linear fits

2. Background extraction (linear tab) - place the grid and remove LP

3. Stretch (I use a few Asinh stretches, followed by several GHS) - view is dynamic

4. Final tweaks in Enhance tab

Clear skies,

AK

First test of the Dwarf 3's Star Trail Mode. 720 × 30s, 6 hours total.

DwarfLab recently added a dedicated Star Trail Mode to the app and I finally had the opportunity to try it. Point the wide-angle lens north, tap the mode, walk away. The app stacks frames additively in real time as they come in. No post-session stacking required. This is 720 frames at 30 seconds each, six hours total.

A few things worth noting in the image:

At six hours, each star traces exactly 90 degrees, one quarter of a full circle. Earth takes 23 hours 56 minutes for a full rotation so the math works out cleanly. You can verify the arc length geometrically in the image.

Polaris is not perfectly centered on the north celestial pole. It sits about 0.7 degrees off, which is why it draws a small arc near center rather than holding a fixed point.

The color in the trails is real astrophysics, not a processing artifact. Star color maps directly to surface temperature. Hotter stars go blue-white, cooler stars go orange-red. It does not come through strongly in the raw stack output but a saturation push in Snapseed pulled it out cleanly.

The two diagonal lines are satellites or aircraft. Star Trail Mode does not reject frames so anything that crossed the field during a single exposure stays in the final image.

More details in my full write up on the session here: https://dwarfastro.com/2026/05/04/dwarf-3-star-trail-mode-720-frames/

Clear Skies,
AK