DSO'S at F/12

After several months of hibernating, I decided to dust off the imaging rig and snap of few DSO's. But instead of using the 10" reflector, I mounted the 5" mak beside my new 80mm guide scope.

The main purpose for using the mak, was to see how it would perform at long exposures before I put it up for sale and help fund an APO Refractor, well, if the CEO lets me... I think it did pretty well considering the short 1 min. exposures and no focusing mask. With a better polar alignment, I could easily have lengthened the subs to 4-5 min.

Maybe I'll try again tonight... :)

Equipment used:

Cameras

Meade DSIc

Philips unmodified Web Cam

OTA's

Orion 127mm Mak (For Sale)

Meade 80mm Achro

Mount

EQ-6 powered by EQMOD

Conditions: Temp 65F., Wind 0-5MPH, Seeing 2/5, Trans. 3/5, Clear

M13

20X60sec. Monochrome

M57

25X60sec.

Autoguiding Finally!

Here are a couple of my first Autoguided images. M57 taken a few nights ago was mostly an attempt to figure out the PHD software. The image is 10x60sec. subs. and star trails were caused by the lack of good balancing and I eventually had to add another 7lb. counterweight. M74 was captured last night and it consist of 4x120sec subs. I did a better job at balancing and polar alignment this time. I captured second image of M74 but it consisted of 30x120sec. subs and for some reason the image did not turn out, it looked like I adjusted the brightness down to about 3%..?? Hopefully on my next session I’ll be able to take longer subs and get more data.

The Ring and Dumbbell Nebulas

Here are my first long exposure attempts. Both images are 25x15sec. Subs stacked. I am pretty please with the final outcome considering all the guesswork I had to take not knowing the camera and software. Hopefully on my next attempt, I will do a better job at polar alignment and balancing.

The Ring Nebula and a Point & Shoot

After weeks of lousy weather ending with the grand finale of Gustav, I finally got some afocal imaging with my new reflector. This 10” Newtonian F/4.7 is a true power house and the mount I’ve attached it to is solid as a rock. This afocal image consist 10x15 sec. subs unguided using our point & shoot camera and a steady pix mount. Stacking the 10 subs in Registax4 I used PSE 2.0 for final processing. This scope and mount will definitely keep my busy for years to come, especially once I begin upgrading my imaging equipment to match its true performance…

Ring Nebula

Here is my first attemp of M57 in two years. Although it did not turn out like I hoped... This image is 40 out of 98 15 sec. out of focus afocal exposures taken through a 40mm ep. After the stacking process, I cleaned up the camera noise with Neat Image to complete the final image.