Flaming Star

[Shibby]

I psyched myself up and went out at 2am last night to do some imaging. Unfortunately after only 42 minutes the secondary mirror was covered in dew (dew shield now in the post!)

I really wanted to wait to add more data to this before posting, but it's not looking like that's going to happen anytime soon judging by the forecast... so what the hell.

Therefore, this image isn't anything special but nonetheless I was pleasantly surprised at how much detail I was able to pull out with such little exposure time!

21x2min unguided, ISO 800

SW 150pds

Canon 450d (modded)

Any and all comments greatly appreciated!

[Luke]

It looks very sweet, I love the delicate colours!

The dew was crazy last night our way. My imaging scope got dewed up despite heaters on high and a whopping big dew shield! Not seen it as damp as last night for a while!

[Tom OD]

Again lovely blue neb capture. Thats the second today.

Maybe try one of those dew heater strips for the secondary. I'm not familar with the SPX scope, or is it a Skywatcher?, and wether it can be done,but if you don't get many clear nights, the last thing you want is equipment issues or dew to take away form the clear skies.

Tom.

[Martin-Devon]

That's a great image Shibby - nice colours, detailed & sharp....

[bigal1]

Excellent result well worth the effort , i'm amazed how you get 2 min unguided subs no matter what i try ( besides drift align ) i can only manage 45 seconds max .

[ollypenrice]

It's already good but I hope you'll get back to it because there's so much going on there.

Ollyu

[Coco]

Ditto what Olly says... add more and go longer and deeper..

[rocketandroll]

That's beautiful!

Well done on getting such a lovely and beautifully processed pic out of a relatively small amount of detail... the blue overlaid over the red looks awesome :-)

I've just added this to my list of things to image!!!

Ben

[foundaplanet]

Wonderful colours in there, very nice..

[Psychobilly]

You have got to go back to this one again under better conditons there's so much going for it.. Nice image scale and framing for the target and rich star colour...

Peter...

[Shibby]

Thanks guys, I will definitely return to this one as soon as possible, potentially with longer sub exposures...

Rain forecast for the next week though... and after that, the moon will have returned. Really requires patience, this hobby, doesn't it??

...i'm amazed how you get 2 min unguided subs no matter what i try ( besides drift align ) i can only manage 45 seconds max .

Is your problem drift or periodic error? If it's drift, there will be room for improvement. A well aligned reticle is key!

Periodic error is a toughie to resolve without guiding (although it *is* possible with ASCOM, not that I've tried it...). I do get PE, but on few enough subs for it not to be a major problem.

[blackparticle]

Ditto to all the above. That's a great looking start.

Excellent result well worth the effort , i'm amazed how you get 2 min unguided subs no matter what i try ( besides drift align ) i can only manage 45 seconds max .

In a word? "Vixen"

Compared to the usual Skywatcher / Celestron mounts, the digital clock, electronics and motor accuracy are far superior. Unguided they are in a different class.

[MikeWilson]

That's really nice!

[Jessun]

Very inspiring and a great image to study! Thanks for sharing!

/Jessun