Nebulae with Opticstar AR80mm F5

[Craney]

Originally bought as a guide scope and general purpose grab and go, my little Opticstar AR80mm F5 refractor was let loose on a few Summer Nebulae the other week.  There was high cloud and the Moon was at last quarter poking above the horizon.  One of those sessions where you are thinking it is not quite good enough to get out the heavy artillery.

 

Finally got around to processing the results and I was quite pleased with the outcomes considering it is a sub £200 scope.

 

Details:    NGC-7000  and M-16 4x2mins    ISO1600

               NGC-6960   6x2mins  ISO1600

...both with modded Canon 600D on HEQ5.

 

 

 

Sean.

           

[Patbloke]

Wow, great work... I own a hardly used OpticStar 80 f5 Gold with dual focuser I might just stick the Canon Rebel DSLR on it to get some use out of it (One day :-\))

[Craney]

Yes, it surprised me a bit..... especially when the North American Nebula jumped out of the camera back with only a 30 sec trial exposure !!

The 400mm FL nicely frames the gas cloud.  

I have cropped off the edges from the shots, the stars were getting a bit cone shaped.  I used a field flattener but I think it has it's work cut out with the F5....  still, not bad for a small,cheap grab and go.

Give it a whirl,   I'm hunting down M-31 next.

 

Sean.

[Rodd]

It is amazing what scopes today can deliver--the differences between, say this scope, and a scope of touted pedigree are not as great as you might think for most situations.  Kind of like a Ferrari and a Toyota used to go to the supermarket and back.  How much difference can there be?  Great images.

Rodd