The Head of Draco

[Knight of Clear Skies]

Looking at some old data now I've learned a few more tricks, here's a single 235 second exposure of Draco with a 50mm lens.

Here's a plate-solved version:

I tried stacking several subs of this but it came out horribly. I'm pleased with this version though. Just used Gradient Xterminator, Canon DPP for balance and a little noise reduction, and StarTools to suppress any greens. I'm now thinking that single exposures may be the way to go for constellation shots, where there is no need to go deep. It's so much easier to get star colours out of a single shot than a stack. I've never managed to get a decent shot of familiar constellations such as Ursa Major, Leo or Hercules. I'm also thinking that single exposures would be easy to stitch together in Microsoft ICE.

The above was shot on a very hazy night hence the softness of the bright stars, the diffraction spikes are almost completely hidden. I quite like the effect in this case, could be a good way of using less than perfect conditions, or it might even be worth experimenting with a fogging filter.