Bit of a disaster with M1 and M97

[dmahon]

Bit of a pain, last night. First clear night in what seemed like ages, so I decided to get the new Equinox 120 out for its second light and try some targets that needed a little extra magnification. I still haven't got the reducer/flattener yet, unfortunately, as the adapters from FLO are still not available.

A couple of firsts for me as well:

1) New wireless extension, so I can control most things remotely from inside the house.

2) Flats

They both went fine.

Unfortunately something went wrong when aligning the scope initially with EQMOD - I hadn't done the clutches up tight enough, which became apparant when I decided to point at something high up in the sky! I had to redo it all, which involved me needing to put an eyepiece back in to get the first star in frame (so I had to go outside, and also needed to focus again when I put the camera back in).

Once I was ready to go I decided on M1. Unfortunately all I got was this fuzzy grey blob without colour. I stopped when it passed the meridian, which is why I only have about 15 frames. Is this lack of colour on M1 normal for an unmodified DSLR? 300s per frame at ISO400 (plus bias, darks and flats).

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmahon81/5481830357/in/pool-astrometry/

I also had a go at M97, but missed it off the edge of the frame (as can be seen if you use the link to the World Wide Telescope and wait a few seconds for it to overlay my photo), which is a bit embarrasing.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmahon81/5481830119/in/pool-astrometry/

[Digz]

I wouldnt say a disaster, but a chance to learn and improve for next time

Chin up, and keep at it!!

[dmahon]

What do I have to do differently (with M1)?

Tonight is not better - despite a forecast saying partly cloudy all night, there is now 100% cloud cover (just afte I had set everything up).

[Hypernova]

Don't be totally disappointed

You managed to nab an NGC galaxy in the M97 pic according to WWT.

[Cloudwatcher]

There is colour in the crab.......... isolate the 'grey bit' and apply Auto Levels to reveal......... course, don't know if it's the 'right' colour but it's definitely got colour.

[Tadakun]

Your m1 looked like mine but I shot mine with a 200mm Dslr lens. But dude above me showed there is color.

[dmahon]

Indeed.

It just shows how bad I am at processing. Apply AUTO COLOUR, AUTO LEVELS and AUTO CONTRAST and you gert a far better result than I did!

[Cloudwatcher]

Nice.