NGC3372 Eta Carina

[ASIGN_Baz]

I am sure I can get a little more out of this one. I think I have gone rusty in my processing over the last few months of not imaging....

19 minutes with darks and flats.

Nexstar 11 GPS - Focal reducer to F6.3

Unmodded Canon 400D

Manual guide using Toucam on piggybacked ED80 on screen.

Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker and processed in paintshop pro 9.

[NickH]

Are you on an alt az mount, or is the 11 on a wedge?

The stars seem to be "rotating" around the edges, or is that some funky coma?

Nice colours, and great depth in the middle though

[ASIGN_Baz]

Thanks Nick, it was only the first practice image. I only had a short time with the hole in the clouds and i need to find a better way to make flats. THe tshirt over the aperture lit with a desk lamp just didnt quite do it. I might try sky flats next time. Or a light box.

The rotating effect I think is caused by the focal reducer. The image is already cropped. You should have seen the gunk around it. Someone has suggested that I try moving the camera body closer or further away from the reducer to see if it flattens at all.

I would like to do a good hour of stacking for this one at least next time.

I would be out there now except its cloudy again. Its now ten to one in the morning and I have been checking on the sky all night.

Baz.

[RobH]

Hello Baz,

Nice to see some images from 'down under' for us 'up over' so to speak

Very interesting image, especially the nebulousity in the centre.

As Nick says, it does look like a rotational effect you have going on there, not FR distortion. FR distortion would have the stars radiating from the centre. It looks more like field rotation to me. Are you sure your N/S polar adjustment is right?

Love you dome

Cheers

Rob