Seven Sisters

I took the mount for a test drive and it was a challenging first time. After several try's i was able to do a rough polar and 3-star alignment. Far from perfect the mount was pointing close to the chosen objects, so why not some photos?

I was not prepared to do exposures, the plan was to test the mount. It was impossible to resist and the camera was out in a flash. Unfortunately i was low on battery and could only capture a couple of photons.

The target was the beautiful M45 - Pleiades Star Cluster. I plan to revisit this part of the sky to do a project with better equipment, more exposure time and better processing.

Image Data: Pleiades Open Star Cluster (Messier 45)

Lens/Scope: Canon 18-55 f/3.5-5.6 EF-S Zoom IS Lens

Focal Length: 55mm

F/Stop: f/6.3

Exposure: Stack of fourteen 90-second exposures (21 minute total exposure)

Mount: Sky-Watcher HEQ5 Pro SynScan GoTo (EQMOD Control)

Guiding: None

Camera: Unmodified Canon 500D (Digital Rebel T1i)

Mode: Raw

ISO: 800

White Balance: Custom, set on sky background

In-Camera Noise Reduction: Off

Filter: None

Date: October 03, 2010

Location: Beja, Portugal

Calibration: Dark frames were subtracted from each individual light frame to remove the thermal signal. Fourteen Dark Frames.

Processing: Calibrated, aligned and stacked in DSS. Levels, curves, brightness and contrast enhancement, noise reduction, cropped, resampled in Photoshop. Carboni Tools.

The Mount

It finally arrived, a brand new computerized german equatorial mount: Sky-Watcher HEQ5 Pro SynScan GoTo.

With this marvelous piece of equipment i hope to greatly improve my astrophotos.

Stacking and Calibration

Image stacking and calibration is used in digital astrophotography in order to enhance data in photos.

To put it simply these methods are used to improve the SNR (Signal to Noise Ratio), reduce long exposure and ISO noise in images taken with DSLR's.

The example shown here is not breathtaking but was obtained using these methods. This Andromeda Galaxy (M31) image lacks exposure time but that can not be increased using only a fixed tripod without showing star trails.

Image Data: Andromeda Galaxy (Messier 31)

Lens/Scope: Canon 18-55 f/3.5-5.6 EF-S Zoom IS Lens

Focal Length: 53mm

F/Stop: f/6.3

Exposure: Stack of ten 15-second exposures (150 second total exposure)

Mount: Fixed Tripod

Guiding: None

Camera: Unmodified Canon 500D (Digital Rebel T1i)

Mode: Raw

ISO: 1600

White Balance: Custom, set on sky background

In-Camera Noise Reduction: Off

Filter: None

Date: September 12, 2010

Location: Beja, Portugal

Calibration: Dark frames were subtracted from each individual light frame to remove the thermal signal.

Processing: Calibrated, aligned and stacked in DSS. Levels, curves, brightness and contrast enhancement, noise reduction, cropped, resampled in Photoshop. Carboni Tools.

Afocal Moon

It can be called the "hand afocal" method. Holding the camera with both hands and closing it to a 25mm eyepiece (EP) that was mounted on the telescope.

Image Data: Moon (Waning Gibbous)

Lens/Scope: Canon 18-55 f/3.5-5.6 EF-S Zoom IS Lens / Trust 60mm Refractor with 25mm EP

Focal Length: 18 mm / 900 mm

F/Stop: f/4 / f/15

Exposure: One 1/500 second exposure

Mount: Fixed Tripod

Guiding: None

Camera: Unmodified Canon 500D (Digital Rebel T1i)

Mode: Raw

ISO: 800

White Balance: None

In-Camera Noise Reduction: Off

Filter: None

Date: August 29, 2010

Location: Beja, Portugal

Calibration: None

Processing: Resampled.

Image Data: Moon (Waning Gibbous)

Lens/Scope: Canon 18-55 f/3.5-5.6 EF-S Zoom IS Lens / Trust 60mm Refractor with 25mm EP

Focal Length: 46 mm / 900 mm

F/Stop: f/6.3 / f/15

Exposure: One 1/60 second exposure

Mount: Fixed Tripod

Guiding: None

Camera: Unmodified Canon 500D (Digital Rebel T1i)

Mode: Raw

ISO: 800

White Balance: None

In-Camera Noise Reduction: Off

Filter: None

Date: August 29, 2010

Location: Beja, Portugal

Calibration: None

Processing: Resampled.