A night of Exploration in Imaging

[Stub Mandrel]

On the night of 8-9 December I finally got the opportunity to have good long imaging session at my 'dark sky' site. It's not that dark as the lights of Sutton Coldfield are visible on the horizon some eight miles away, unfortunately more or less in the direction of many of the things I wanted to image.

This was my second session with my astro-modified Canon Eos 10D, but instead of concentrating on one target, I wanted to experiment with different lenses and targets. I realised this would mean accepting more noise, but I need to know what sort of data I can get. I have learned some useful lessons about appropriate exposure and about my lenses. I also discovered how much I need to make little bhatinov masks for my camera lenses, as focusing without live view is a big challenge.

Annoyingly I started with my 150PL which I got beautifully focused very quickly, but it was very gusty and I could not get any steady images. I changed to a 400mm lens, and even with that several of my Pleiades shots were spoiled by the wind. After that the wind dies down and with good PA the tracking was spot on with the relatively short exposures I was using.

I hope that this selection will also show what can be achieved without using a telescope, because although I had two scopes with me, all these photos  were taken with camera lenses, although I was using an EQ3-2 mount with RA tracking on an EQ5 tripod.

Here's a selection of what I got, all 8-bit jpeg versions. I'm quite pleased with them, and I have learnt several new processing tricks, but I accept that I've still got a long way to go.

I started with the Pleiades at 400mm, my first decent shots of the whole thing, instead of just a little bit. I lost a lot of subs from this because of the wind.

Second target was the Orion Nebula:

Next, the Flame and Horsehead nebulae. The flame was very clear even on the unprocessed images.

Next I tried using a 58mm lens to do the whole of Orion. This was less successful as the lens wouldn't stop down, smearing the stars at the ends. I've fixed this now. I managed to get the tiniest hint of Barnard's loop but I think a less light polluted sky is needed to get it properly with an RGB camera.

Next I went to a Carl Zeiss 135mm lens which is really sharp. With more and longer subs to reduce the noise I think this lens will really deliver. The Rosette nebula with the Christmas Tree Cluster:

Finally, the Heart and Soul nebulas:

Quite a crop for one night, and all could have been improved if I had focused better and concentrated on just one or two targets, but i would not have learnt anywhere as near as much about my equipment, framing, focusing and setting up in the middle of a field!

Sorry if this post is rather long, but hopefully it will encourage people with basic equipment to have a go.

[MarsG76]

Nice collection for one night.

[laudropb]

Very nice set of images. Well done.

[GeoffB]

These are great considering you decided to cut back on many of the extra data shots. It also as you say shows the problem many of us have encountered this year with our beloved UK weather fronts I keep on kissing the few clear skies and reduced wind due to family commitments. I will keep an eye on your threads as they are lovely pictures hope you get the camera coupled with yourbscope and evennits lenses the zeiss lens does seem to perform very well with a nice wide FoV.

[MilwaukeeLion]

Nice, really like Rose and  Heart, looking forward to seeing next go with that lens.