Targets appropriate for modded DSLR and WO Z73

[Shimonu]

I've got my EOS 700D and WO Z73 and I always get very hesitant about which targets I should go for. A few times I've gone out deciding for a target but once I try an exposure for maybe 3-5 minutes nothing really shows up. Maybe it's the light pollution or perhaps it was the moon last time. But I've got a few clear nights without any moon coming up so I'd like to know what a good target could be. I've been thinking about the Rosette nebula perhaps, I've got the best sky to the south and I'm at about Lat 58. I've done the obvious targets like M42 and M45 recently as well as the horsehead although I might get more data on that. I've also done a bit of M31. So I'd like some interesting nebula really.

I recently learned the QE on a DSLR is pretty horrible so I guess I've got that working against me as well. But I'm feeling a bit confused about how I should find a suitable target for my gear.

[Stuf1978]

The Rosette is a good shout and aside from the obvious M42 and Horsehead you could maybe try the California Nebula or the Flaming Star region in Auriga. These both respond pretty well to a modded dslr

[City9Town0]

Heart and Soul?

[edarter]

North America? 

[Shimonu]

16 minutes ago, City9Town0 said:

Heart and Soul?

I once made an attempt at the Soul I believe with a 2 or 3 minute exposure to see what I could get but it barely registered so I'm wondering how good signal I could actually get. As this target is also pretty much straight up it's somewhat affected by the light pollution from the city, at least in the location I normally go to. So I would probably prefer something like the Rosette which is semi-high in the sky and to the south.

3 minutes ago, edarter said:

North America? 

Unfortunately I have some light pollution in that direction so it's not ideal. I've tried 5 minutes on the elephant trunk and I didn't see any nebulosity at a quick glance. Although this was during a full moon so might be worth another try.

The California nebula and Flaming star seem interesting  I think I'll give them a try.

[ollypenrice]

If you have a PC planetarium you can usually plug in your focal length and chip size to get an idea of how a target will fit your frame. I use SkyMap Pro but there are free ones like Carte du Ciel and Stellarium which, I think, also let you do this.

If you use Photoshop for post-processing, a trick for extracting more Ha signal from emission nebulae is to go to Image-Adjustments-Selective Colour and lower the cyans in red by moving to top Reds slider to the left. This can be quite spectacular.

Olly

[Shimonu]

2 minutes ago, ollypenrice said:

If you have a PC planetarium you can usually plug in your focal length and chip size to get an idea of how a target will fit your frame. I use SkyMap Pro but there are free ones like Carte du Ciel and Stellarium which, I think, also let you do this.

If you use Photoshop for post-processing, a trick for extracting more Ha signal from emission nebulae is to go to Image-Adjustments-Selective Colour and lower the cyans in red by moving to top Reds slider to the left. This can be quite spectacular.

Olly

Yeah I'm pretty frequently in Stellarium so I know what fits. The issue is rather what's going to be detected by the sensor as I've been surprised a few times.

I don't have PS but I do fiddle a bit with GIMP and maybe I can do something similar there. Otherwise I use AstroPixel Processor.

[smr]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZGH0HmhKBI

All images here were taken with my Z73. Some of which were taken with my stock 80D, some with my modded Canon 600D. 

[Dave2292]

On 02/02/2021 at 22:14, Shimonu said:

I've got my EOS 700D and WO Z73 and I always get very hesitant about which targets I should go for. A few times I've gone out deciding for a target but once I try an exposure for maybe 3-5 minutes nothing really shows up. Maybe it's the light pollution or perhaps it was the moon last time. But I've got a few clear nights without any moon coming up so I'd like to know what a good target could be. I've been thinking about the Rosette nebula perhaps, I've got the best sky to the south and I'm at about Lat 58. I've done the obvious targets like M42 and M45 recently as well as the horsehead although I might get more data on that. I've also done a bit of M31. So I'd like some interesting nebula really.

I recently learned the QE on a DSLR is pretty horrible so I guess I've got that working against me as well. But I'm feeling a bit confused about how I should find a suitable target for my gear.

Try the monkey head nebula, I tried that as my first target with my modified dslr