M44 Beehive and Crescent Moon plus more

[AlexB]

Hi all,

Another session at the Norman Lockyer Observatory on Friday, finally got around to processing the images.

Unfortunately I had issues with my EQ1 Motor, for some reason it would not come to life (but lo-and-behold, was fine when I got home?!) Upshot is, I've got no tracking shots ... still!

Here are some normal photography (kind of) and a Widefield non-tracking stack of M44 that I managed to just about make something out of.

Crescent Moon over the Kensington Dome

Crescent Moon - close up

M44 - Beehive Cluster

16x6s@ISO3200 - 18-135mm @ 75mm [Too long for the focal length!]

22x6s@ISO3200 Darks

360° Panorama of the Normal Lockyer Observatory

[WARNING - Big Image!]

Martin from FLO's Rig set up to Image M51

[AlexB]

Just to say, the panorama is now linked to the larger image, rather than picassaweb's horrible manipulation of the image!

[skywatcher1701]

very nice set of photos there, well done.

[AlexB]

Many Thanks, I guess I'm improving

[eliot]

It's a good site to observe/image from with really helpful and friendly people. It's a shame that I can't get down there more often.

[Ant]

Very nice set of images.

Love the panorama, very nicely stitched together!

Ant

[AlexB]

The NLO is a fab place to observe.

Thanks for your kind comments, the photo was cheat stitched using Microsoft ICE, unbelievably a piece of free software from Microsoft that is actually worth using! :-)

Been tying to get some images while on holiday in Crantock but the ST-80 + EQ1 Table top + Heavy DSLR combination is not working out as well as I'd hoped it would!