neil groves

Using a 2X barlow with my ED120, the other two moon shots are crops from this image.

This is a 30 min exposure of M25 star cluster in Sagitarius, I lost some colour in the stars but managed to retain some yellow in amongst the white......what is the trick for keeping the colours from being washed out? ED120 Canon T3 ISO 1600 60 X 30 sec exposures

A rework of my last upload.

Well here's what happened lol I went out to grab some images of the moon and had some time left over so remembering the location of a nebula I had seen online, I swung my scope to Auriga with the intention of capturing the flaming star nebula, I found this open cluster and thought ah huh, this is it, I spent 35 mins collecting star data then came indoors to process, I couldn't believe how faint the 'flaming star neb' was so I tracked it down in a star altlas only to find I had completely missed the nebula, this cluster actually lies between the two brighter patches of gas lol......I liked the resulting image though so kept it, I am going back for another attempt soon I hope.

My wife bought me a 3X barlow for Christmas and I finally got a chance to spend some time with the telescope last night, I found it an absolute joy to use and experiment with my ED120 and Canon T3, these were the two best shots I came away with, I probably over sharpened the top view but lesson learned note to self: be patient and take your time! I was surprised at how much the barlow cuts down on the light received at the sensor, these were at 1/4 sec.

Time to get some winter delights imaged, no into needed for this beauty, skywatcher ED120 Canon T3 1hr 10 mins exposure from 30 sec subs ISO 1600

This is my second attempt at this and I am ok with it I guess, it's a 72 min exposure and I thought I may be able to get a little more detail than that for that exposure, I will collect some more data when I get a chance and add to this. Skywatcher ED 120 Canon T3 ISO 1600 144 X 30 sec subs = 72mins exposure time

1 hr total exposure ( 30 sec subs ) with usual gear.

I kinda messed up with this , I had the camera set to ISO1600, left over from my star shoot and the atmosphere was terrible, the sky seemed to be clear but a view of the moon through the eye piece showed a great deal of heat turbulence going on but since I already had my kit set up, I took a couple shots anyway. NOTE TO SELF : always double check settings !

This is Sadr in the constellation of Cygnus, I had hoped to capture some nebulosity around the star cluster but after 1 hour exposure of 30 sec subs, nothing showed, probably my inadequate processing skills ha ha. SW ED120 Canon T3 ISO 1600 120 X 30 sec subs in Tungsten white balance.

This is 37 mins made up from 30 sec subs, I hope to add more data to this once the atmosphere steadies., also this is with the white balance set to tungsten to try to help with the background redness that normally occurs. SW ED120 Canon T3 74 X 30 sec subs Neil.

I went out last night to get some more data for M17, this is 50 mins in 30 sec subs shot with the camera in tungsten white balance which helps greatly with keeping the background dark. SW ED120 Canon T3 ISO 1600 30 sec subs = 50 mins

I went out last night to get some more data for M17, this is 50 mins in 30 sec subs shot with the camera in tungsten white balance which helps greatly with keeping the background dark. SW ED120 Canon T3 ISO 1600 30 sec subs = 50 mins

This is M31, the great spiral in Andromeda, I was expecting my battery to poop out on me any minute so decided to hit the galaxy with 30 sec exposures till it did so, it was low on the horizon and in the L.P area so I was quite happy how this came out with a total exposure time of 13 minutes.

I was panning around the southern sky and a patch of light came into the FOV, not knowing what is was I imaged it and besides being a little soft on the focus I am fairly pleased with it, I have no idea what M number it is if any at all, could be just a patch of gas hanging around, all I can tell you is that it is somewhere in Ophiuchus. 88 lights at 30 secs each 5 darks 10 flats ISO 1600 SW ED120 Canon T3

I went out to find M101 and failed AGAIN, so I turned my attention to M51 since my other target that evening was obliterated by the moon, I scanned around with a low power wide view eyepiece and after some time came across this little guy, I knew it wasn't M51 but since I had it in my sights I thought i'd image it anyway, I only managed just less that 30 mins before cloud spoilt my play time however I was excited to get it processed so I could find out what I had caught, it was a [removed word] to focus since there were no bright stars in the area to conveniently slew to so I had to take a few shots and guess my best focus, anyway after consulting my star atlas I found it was M94 based on the layout of the surrounding stars. lights = 57 @ 30 sec each = ~30 mins darks =20 flats =20 ISO 1600 SW ED120 Canon T3

M81 and M82 are now drifting into my L.P now so i'm going to leave these guys till next year now, I uploaded this so that when I come back to it next year, it will give me an idea of what I am aiming for.....better than this ha ha actually though I am pleased to have gotten some dust lanes and some spiral out of M81. 1 hr 20 mins SW ED120 Canon T3.

I just shot these while I was waiting for the sky to darken mmore for my galaxy shoot, the sky was still a little blue/grey but i'm pleased to how these turned out, I threw in a 2X barlow and fitted my Canon T3, I already had my remote attached and the camera set to bulb so I no idea on exposure time I hit the shutter release and immediately let go and it seemed about right, although the bottom of the moon is more cratered I still prefere the top. SW ED120 Canon T3 Orion 2X barlow