A Big Spider

[Sam]

I've finally got my imaging set up going and got my head around the southern sky and how to set everything up in the opposite direction as opposed to last time I was imaging in the UK. It's been so long I had to relearn everything and I still haven't got the guiding quite right but I was pleased to be able to get NGC 2070 (The Tarantula Nebula) in the LMC.

This object certainly looks like a Tarantula in the eyepiece. It's 180,000 light years away in one of our neighbouring galaxies, the LMC. Now that daylight saving has finished in New Zealand I was able to have everything setup by about 7pm. Dew was a real problem as it always is on these autumn evenings but a quick modification with a lot of cardboard solved that problem.

The image was shot with a modified Canon 1000D through a Skywatcher 250p. The guiding was done with a Skywatcher ST80 and a QHY5 guide camera (EQMOD driving an EQ6 Syntrek). The software used was Guidemaster to get the drift alignment right and then PHD for the guiding. Canon software was used for capturing the images and DSS and PixInsight 1.5 were used for the image processing. I'm very pleased to get back into imaging after quite a long break. Unfortunately this image hasn't got any calibration frames as that's still a job I've got to do.

The other thing to mention is this was the first time I've used the MPCC I bought last year. It does a great job of getting rid of the coma so the stars look nice and round throughout the frame (certainly compared to how they used to look). The MPCC was easy to install and didn't mess around with the focus at all.

Anyway, here's the image - hopefully the first of many from the Southern Sky!

[gerard33]

Belle fleur exotique!

Very nice and more

[Deneb]

Looks like an Angry Spider, well framed shot. Look forward to more Southern Wonders.

Cheers

Nadeem.

[MartinB]

A wonderful image. You've certainly got the hang of imaging the wrong way up. The stars are superb

[Macavity]

Splendid (colour) - Almost an Egyptian Ankh in there somewhere...

[Sam]

Thanks! It's a fantastic night tonight as well so I've got the setup sucking some more photons.

I forgot to mention the image is 1hr 55min of 5mins subs at ISO 400.

Sam

[Sam]

I managed to get the calibration frames sorted so I can push this image a little further. Now some of the darker structures have been brought out and the star fields of the LMC are starting to become more visible. This one has got the full range of flats, darks, bias and flat darks - well worth doing. I also used the HDR tool in PixInsight which I think has done a pretty good job of toning down the bright nebula at the centre of the cluster and bringing through some of the dimmer regions further out.

Sam