My M45 15/01/12

[Black Knight]

Had a bit of an abortive run on M31 last night, so I though I would try another target before packing up for the night.

Taken with my 8" steel Quattro and modded Canon 500D with the Skywatcher coma corrector. I think the focus is slightly out, and there was a gradient which I think I have sorted out. But all in all, better than last years effort. The flats definitely make a difference!

36 x 60 seconds lights, 6 darks, 20 bias, 38 flats.

APT, DSS and level alignment in PS with a very slight saturation boost (and Gradient Exterminator ).

Any comments welcome .

[Quatermass]

Nice one Andy I prefer the images of this with less of the dust around them I like the way they sparkle when you see them through your eye piece. It was a great night last night but I was obsessed about M101 which was a mistake should have moved on to something else. Dont think Im going to get better results until I upgrade my mount and get a guided system sorted out.

[Black Knight]

Thanks QM. I tried stretching the image with curves to bring out the nebulosity more, but in the end I simply preferred the look of it "raw" as it were. I might have another go later, although I may not have enough data to do it justice anyway.

[Quatermass]

That is what I did with mine but it would need a lot more subs to get out more of that nebulosity and I will wait till I have my guider set up and come back to it. One of my favourite sights in the night sky. I must get myself an ED80 in the coming year.

[Daniel-K]

how does the coma correcter perform?

[Black Knight]

Well on this image it seemed to perform perfectly well, so I'm happy with it . I have issues with elongated stars on longer exposures that look a bit like coma but I think is more to do with bad PA or guiding issues. Or even perhaps a slight breeze! . So I was quite pleased with this one. My M31 image that I was trying earlier was plagued with those damn elongated stars, which I can't seem to eradicate. Sometimes I get 'em, sometimes I don't. But either way, I don't think it's the coma corrector's fault.