IC1396 Elephant's Trunk Nebula with modded DSLR

[BrendanC]

Hi all,

A first for me last night - 300s subs, which requires a lot of background work to build the darks library but worth it. Managed to test it by adding exposure time to my Elephant's Trunk Nebula.

It was also my first proper shoot since fitting a primary mirror baffle which I think may have made quite a big difference to the star definition. 🙂

Nerdy stats:
* 7:39 hours of integration at ISO800 from top 90% of 17x120s + 50x240s + 45x300s subs, over 4 nights 
* Bortle 4 sky, Moon average 53% phase, 33° height 
* Calibration: 25 flats, 25 dark flats, 50 darks 
* Hardware: Sky-Watcher 130PDS scope (F5), Sky-Watcher NEQ6 mount with Rowan belt, Canon EOS1000D DSLR camera with IR filter removed, Sky-Watcher 0.9x coma corrector, Datyson T7C guide camera, Angel Eyes 50mm guide scope 
* Software: Polar alignment with SharpCap Pro, guiding with PHD2, capture with Astrophotography Tool (APT), stacking with Deep Sky Stacker (DSS), post-processing with StarTools and Topaz Denoise AI

 

 

Edited September 4, 2021 by BrendanC

[carastro]

Very nice DSLR image.

Carole