First try at the Dumbbell Nebula

[ryandsimmons]

Finally something that I am genuinely proud of.  The Dumbbell Nebula.

Celectron C8 on a CG5 GOTO

Canon EOS1000D

27 x 30 sec lights

5 darks

3 bias frames.

I know there is a lot of work to be done manipluating it properly, but this is my "first draft" which took me 2 minutes in DSS and Photoshop, but I am very happy to finally get something with reasonable round stars, and some nice colour.

dumb by Ryan Simmons, on Flickr

[PhotoGav]

And so you should be, well done, that's a great start! You'll soon be wanting to up the exposure time and capture even more detail in your images. Guiding beckons... Welcome to the dark side!

[Leveye]

Real fine work. The starcolor is great. Just wait till you put a bit more time onto the exposure length. All the nice color will start to pop. I'd try stretching this one a bit more in PS.

[hobsey]

From one C8 and CG5 GT owner to another, that is a superb effort and gives me hope that one day I will give imaging ago with this combination one day.

[ryandsimmons]

From one C8 and CG5 GT owner to another, that is a superb effort and gives me hope that one day I will give imaging ago with this combination one day.

Personally I find this scope great for photos. Sure with better equipment you can do more, but I am getting enough joy from this and getting some photos I feel proud of even if they are not up to the standards of the serious photographers on the site.

This was about two hours work total last night, mostly spent in setting up, and that is short enough time to do on a "school night" and still get something I am happy to print and stick on my desk at work.

I am intrigued to see what I can do when winter comes around and have the time to do 100 or more exposures.

[hobsey]

Are you using a focal reducer to speed the scope up a bit?

[ryandsimmons]

Nope. That is next on my shopping list. Probably in two months.

Well either that or a dew control system...

There is always more to buy I find.

[robbie c]

That's a great image well done

[toxic]

very n ice image and way better than my first - second-and third attempt 

[ScottS]

Nice capture.

[JamesF]

A very good effort.  I think the reducer would help, but guiding is pretty much required when you want to get more exposure time on PNs such as these.  I captured this using my 127 Mak last year without a focal reducer, so the effective focal length isn't that far off what you'd get from the C8 with one.  The image is two and a half hours worth of exposure time in total, but there's just no way I could have got the exposure time for individual subs to get even this level of detail without the guiding.  I did try, but I just ended up throwing away at least 50% of my subs.

James

[Stargazer33]

Well done Ryan that is very nice. I must have another go at this myself before it gets too late, weather permitting of course; which it isn't at the moment!

[Pete Presland]

excellent Ryan, nice to see you are happy with the progress you are making.

[ryandsimmons]

Cheers for the feedback guys!

Got a clear night coming up tonight, and day off tomorrow so I can try for something with 50+ subs tonight.

Choices are:

Cats Eye (nice, but is really tiny)

Elephant Trunk (is this even possible with my setup?)

Hercules Cluster (Tempting, but I would prefer a galaxy / nebula)

Heart Nebula (again possible in my setup?)

Soul Nebula (See above)

Iris Nebula (See above)

Pacman Nebula

I have to be honest I have no idea about imaging any of this.  I have just used this site and worked my way down the list...

http://dso-browser.com/dso/search?dso_type_ids[]=&minimum_altitude=40&minimum_altitude_duration=120&include_circumpolar=1&minimum_magnitude=&maximum_magnitude=&include_unknown_magnitude=1&minimum_size=&maximum_size=10800&include_unknown_size=1&minimum_surface_brightness=&maximum_surface_brightness=&include_unknown_surface_brightness=1&catalogue_ids=&minimum_right_ascension=&maximum_right_ascension=&minimum_declination=&maximum_declination=&month=&day=&year=&minimum_hour=21&maximum_hour=1&limit=100&sort=mag

As a reminder...

C8 (F10)

CG5 GOTO mount

Unmodded EOS 1000D

[PhotoGav]

There are two extremely useful resources out there that I constantly use to help with deciding what to image:

http://www.12dstring.me.uk/fov.htm

http://www.blackwaterskies.co.uk/p/imagingtoolbox.html

As for your list above, they are all possible with your set-up, you might not get the whole object in the field of view, but some of the most interesting images are just small portions of a larger object in closer detail, so don't be put off imaging anything, just pick your part wisely!

Have fun and clear skies.

[ryandsimmons]

Okay, some more research, thanks to Photogav's links.

Elephant Trunk is what I would like, but researching it, it sounds like I will really struggle unguided and without a modded camera.

Looks like the easiest targets will be

Iris Nebula

Pacman Nebula

Cocoon Nebula

Fireworks Galaxy

Anyone got any strong recomendations out of those?  As far as I can see they are all fairly bright, at least of moderate size, and near the zenith.

[hobsey]

I would like to see the firework galaxy done with the C8.

[ryandsimmons]

I thought it would work.  Is there something I am missing?

Size is 11 degrees, and the FOV calculator says 37.56' x 25.04' for my camera.

Is it the additional magnitude drop from 7.3 (Dumbbell which I can get easily) to 8.8?

[pyrasanth]

That is a really nice first image. I love all pictures of M27- it's such an amazing object.

Get a copy of the book The New CCD Astronomy by Wodaski.I bought the book last week & its full of the most amazing advice.

I am working away from home at present so my time at the telescope is limited by this & the weather. I cant wait to hook up my camera and have a go at photographing some of the brighter objects.

Clear skies to you all.

[ryandsimmons]

Bah, tried tonight and just could not align anything, plus really bad dew problems so gave up in anger.

One annoying thing about imaging in a garden is that you need to align etc early then leave things running as slewing is too loud and would annoy the neighbours.  When I found my stars were oval at 10pm it was too late to try another alignment.

Bother!

[hobsey]

as slewing is too loud

That is one of the very worst feature on the CG5-GT, sounds like a coffee grinder.

This is one of the reason why I don't know if I'm going to take mine camping with me.

[ryandsimmons]

Aha! Some research this. Owning tells me you can slow down the maximum slew speed on the mount. I will have to try that. May be annoying doing very slow alignments, but worth it not to annoy the neighbours.

[hobsey]

You can only slow down the manual slewing speed not the alignment slewing speed because if you could slow down the alignment slewing speed the stars would have moved to much by the time you got to it for a correct alignment.

If that makes sense?