M27 - Dumbell (on a poor night)

[Helen]

I'm still doing my space tourist bit and having a lot of fun taking shortish exposure pictures. Here is a 20x5min subs shot of M27 taken with an Atik 460 colour camera on a WO123FLT scope with a 0.8FR, and a Hutech LPR filter. There was a lot of high cloud/moisture in the air which I think is causing the halo on the bright star (and I was losing the target to a roofline which might not have helped either!).

Captured and guided in Maxim. Calibrated and stacked in DSS. Finished in CS2, with a little help from Noel's actions. Reduced to 75% because it looks better that way!

Helen

[Mark72]

Nice work Helen!

5 minutes is not a shortish exposure;)

Mark

[Helen]

Nice work Helen!

5 minutes is not a shortish exposure;)

Mark

Thanks Mark. No, 5 minutes is a reasonable length, but the experienced imagers will think that 1 hour in total is rather short

Helen

[Darth Takahashi]

Very nice work...

[rory]

very nice. wouldnt it be fantastic if we picked up colours when observing

[Gina]

Nice one - particularly with a relatively short total exposure time

[Helen]

Thanks guys, and yes it would be awesome to see colours visually!

Helen

[Alastair Rae]

Not bad for a quick snap. The patience of astro-photographers never ceases to amaze me.