Taking advantage of some clear nights over the Xmas break

[DorsetBlue]

After spending most of December getting decidedly grumpy over cloud cover, suddenly some nice cold clear nights happened. So it was out with the SW Star Adventurer and my Canon with some cheap M42 prime lenses.  My first target was M45.  I love this cluster and I was determined to get a better picture than the one I got last year, which I think I did:

30x90s Lights, ISO800, Canon 100D with cheapo M42 200mm Prime Lens mounted on a SW Star Adventurer, processed in StarTools.

I thought I would then do a widefield of the Orion constellation (well as much as would fit into the view via a 50mm lens):

60x90s Lights, ISO400 (struggling with light pollution), Canon 100D with cheapo M42 50mm Prime Lens mounted on a SW Star Adventurer, processed in StarTools.

Then it was back to the 200mm Prime lens for some closer shots of the Flame / Horsehead Nebulae:

30x60s Lights, ISO400 (struggling with light pollution), Canon 100D with cheapo M42 200mm Prime Lens mounted on a SW Star Adventurer, processed in StarTools.

...and the Orion / Running Man Nebulae:

30x60s Lights, ISO400 (struggling with light pollution), Canon 100D with cheapo M42 200mm Prime Lens mounted on a SW Star Adventurer, processed in StarTools.

The best purchase I have made in the last few months was a dew heater and controller for the DSLR lenses and a dew shield made from a Neoprene silencer (gun one) cover bought from eBay.  No dew issues since I have been using these.

[wimvb]

Some very nice shots here. The horse nebula is very faint, so unless your canon is astro modded, it will be difficult to get good results (difficult, but certainly not impossible).

If your setup/conditions allow, you should try a lower iso and longer exposure time. This will reveal more faint detail in all these targets.

Cheers,

[DorsetBlue]

Yes, that is the current issue I have - light pollution.  Any further extension to the exposure time is limited by that (hence lowering the ISO to 400 and going down to 60s - my SA can do 90s reasonably reliably).  I am hoping to get a LPF soon and will then start to play with the guiding port and my GPCAM V2.

[lune lupine]

Nice pictures there.

Wish I had some clear skies to practice on. Seems to be perma cloud in Ireland this year so far