M45, M42 and Horsehead - Sharpstar 130 HNT first light images

[Roy Foreman]

This is a great little scope.  Not only stunning to look at in its red and black livery, but solid and well built yet quite light.  And at F/2.8 it gathers photons like there's no tomorrow.  It really does cover a full frame sensor, albeit with some light fall of in the corners which is easily corrected with flats.

These are first light images taken under hazy skies, as evidenced by the misty halos around bright stars, so integration times had to be limited and image quality was affected.  Also I have some minor spacing and tilt issues to address.  I think the NB1 filter is also not suited to F/2.8 as there are some slight chromatic effects in the corners.

The Orion image was 42 x 60 sec with an IDAS NB1 tri-band filter.  And 21 x 2 sec (yes really, 2 sec) for the core of M42.

The Pleiades image was 30 x 60 sec with no filters.  It is good to see the faint yellowish nebulosity surrounding the cluster just starting to record.

Camera was a ZWO ASI 6200 MC Pro full frame OSC.

Processed in Photoshop.

Not perfect images, but an encouraging start I think.

Thanks for looking.