M27 through clouds

[glennbech]

This my first image this year with the 8" newtonian. The conditions were not good, with transparent but visible clouds in most of the sky.

I set up DSLR Focus for 40 exposures of 3 minutes. I ended up with about 22 or so usable frames. I got 13 darks (darks are really neccesary with my 10D!)

Near the end, I tested a few 5 minte subs, but the clock was ticking fast towards 3am and sunrise. The 5 minutes subs would probably have enhanced the outer regions of the nebula.

I also did the mistake (last time this year...promise!) of not checking the first subframe for round stars and coma. My MPCC is working great, but in this image I have coma around the edges (Not visible because of the crop). It MIGHT come from guiding, but may also be a result of camera alignment in the focuser. Focuser is also a bit out I think.

All in all I am very sureprised that the image came out this good, taken the sky into account. Planetary nebulae imaging is really forgiving in poor conditions :-)

EDITED to include full image w/Coma or tracking problems

[DAVPPK]

Pretty good considering the conditions....Nice colour too!!

Dave

[skye at night]

nice!!!

[Taff]

Nice one Glenn' the neb looks great with the stars in the backround.Mark

[Rob]

I think you did very well there.. well done

[Coco]

The first image is a super cracker!!

Love it....

Guy....

[glennbech]

thank you for your comments ;-) I'll add some 5 minute subs to it later this year maybe :-)

[glennbech]

I sometimes get a bit eager when posting my photos and rush out the finished result. Sometimes a bit more time and inspection will provide a better result.

I think this is one of those cases, I have selected only the best 30 minutes of data here, and discarded 1.5 Hours. To my sureprise the image is less noisy, and the stars are much better the 60 minute version posted on top. I think the reason is the clouds.

I think this is a bit better, and less noisy. What do you think?

[prokyon]

You made the best of this conditions! Great work, I like the colors.

cheers

werner

[rikyuu]

That's nice, I particularly like the wide field.