Gusty Dumbbell Nebula

[CKemu]

Last night was my first clear night in, well gosh it feels like eons!

M27 is a target I first saw June last year and quickly fell in love with! The last time I photographed it I had just gotten my guiding gear and had massive issues with cloud cover and newbie mistakes with my equipment. I am still learning and decided that last night would be my re-attempt.

Drift alignment went well, with the star staying in the cross-hairs for a solid eight minutes with only the slightest of movement.

What I didn't count on was the gusts of wind, out of 20x8 minute ISO 1600 subs (the midpoint ISO of my D300, and reasonable for noise vs. exposure length), only 10 where visually usable, and of those - 3 had ovals or L shape hooks due to wind.

I think the problem mostly stemmed from the wind catching my guide-cam cable and making it shake rather dramatically.

My secondary issue still remains with the blue / red halos I get around stars when I start processing an image - I've basically Photoshopped the star colour to grey scale in this image - which looks in my mind more natural than a neon crimson star.

[Naemeth]

That's a lovely image of the Dumbbell, I'll see if I can see it today or tomorrow night .

[Gina]

Beautiful

[earth titan]

Very nice. Was thus taken with an SCT? Cos the detail and magnification are fantastic.

[todd8137]

It's a great image

[ozuy0109]

Good to admire

[CKemu]

Very nice. Was thus taken with an SCT? Cos the detail and magnification are fantastic.

Thanks, yeah it was taken with my LX90 8". Honestly I want far many more sub frames - I want to do this object some justice.

[earth titan]

Still to use my SCT for imaging. Did you use an OAG? Don't see any evidence of mirror flop, so excellent effort.

[Quatermass]

Great image with good detail and colour.

[CKemu]

Still to use my SCT for imaging. Did you use an OAG? Don't see any evidence of mirror flop, so excellent effort.

No OAG or even a crayford - I focus using the primary mirror knob and my mask and guiding is done through PHD connected to my Orion ST-80 / StarShoot Autoguider.

Indeed to be honest I've never really considered mirror flop - my biggest issue is attempting to image M82 - the camera gets scary close to the base of the fork.