Last outings of the Nikon D70

[Shibby]

Having recently bought my own Canon 450d from ebay and modified it, the D70 I was borrowing has gone back to its rightful owner!

Here are some of the unfinished images I was working on, some of them probably far too amitious I fear with an unguided, unmodified camera.

Although because of these things, the images aren't great, I'm very happy with the optical performace of the SW 150PDS & coma corrector. Looking forward to what I can achieve with the modified Canon!

First is IC 348, a reflection nebula in Perseus, still quite faint after ~3.3hours of exposure! (49x4mins, unguided - few tracking errors visible in this one):

There is some interesting dark nebulosity nearby that I was hoping to bring out with more and more subs, though I'm not sure how much more I could have got without longer subs... Here's a wider, wildly over-processed view:

Here was where I'd got to with a region full of reflection nebulae including IC446+447 and a few others surrounded by the wider emission nebula near the Cone. This is ~1hour (29x2mins, unguided):

And a quite wide view of the Pacman, again very faint for an unmodified camera I think! I'm pleased with the star shapes though. 1.7hours (52x2mins, unguided):

Thanks for looking!

[namreg]

Hi Lewis. Shame to see the D70 go! I'm still lumbered with mine unfortunately. I look on it as a challenge!

I'm going to PM you about your coma corrector (which seems to work looking at the images above). Just bought the Baader but I suspect I won't be able to focus (haven't tested it yet, but all things point to a NO!)

[Shibby]

Hi Doug, to be honest I'd have probably carried on using the D70 if I could have modified it! It's perfectly sensitive enough for reflection nebula, so in theory it should pick up emission nebula well once modified. In fact, you've proven that already! Actually, it does have a couple of small advantages over the Canons - bigger pixel size and bigger sensor! However, as you know, the amp glow is terrible!

I've heard that the Baader actually moves the focus point *out* from the focuser slightly... so you should have no trouble reaching focus!

[namreg]

Ah. Maybe I'm being too pessimistic then, which is the norm for me! Perhaps I should wait until I've tested it before I plan how to get around the problem, as there may not be a problem

Fingers crossed. I'll let you know.