NGC 1499 - California Nebula

The California Nebula is an emission, Hα, nebula located 1000 light years from Earth in the constellation Perseus. This name was given because of the resemblance to the United States state of California.

I wanted to test the performance of my camera with an emission nebula. The California was chosen because it's big and was high in the sky. From the results of this project it can be concluded that i really need to modify my camera.

120 seconds is the maximum exposure time i can have with only a polar and 3 star alignment and without guiding. Even with guiding and without a light pollution suppression filter (LPS) will be difficult to increase exposure time.

Image Data:  NGC 1499 California Nebula

Lens/Scope: Sky-Watcher 80mm

Focal Length: 400mm

F/Stop: f/5

Exposure: Stack of 116 120-second exposures (3:52 hours total exposure)

Mount: Sky-Watcher HEQ5 Pro SynScan GoTo (CdC & 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: November 06, 2010

Start Time: 00:20

Location: Beja, Portugal

Calibration: 60 Darks. 60 Flats. 60 Dark Flats.

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

M52 & NGC 7635

It was halloween weekend with a national holiday on the first of November. Three nights for astrophotography on the horizon and i was eager to test all those technics i learned.

Couldn't be more disapointed because clouds, rain and wind where calling the shots around here. For professional reasons i can't image during the week, so i'm at the mercy of weather conditions on weekends.

To my surprise the sky's cleared on the last night and it was photon happy hour. I set course to the Messier  52 star cluster and Bubble nebula in the Cassiopeia constellation. The Bubble is an emission nebula, a Hα region, wich an unmodified DSLR has difficulties capturing due to the stock UV/IF filter.  I'm planning to do a Hα project just to see how far my unmodified camera can go.

For this picture i could go so far as 3 hour total exposure before clouds filled the sky once again.

Image Data: Messier 52 Open Star Cluster & NGC 7635 Bubble Nebula

Lens/Scope: Sky-Watcher 80mm

Focal Length: 400mm

F/Stop: f/5

Exposure: Stack of 90 120-second exposures (3 hour total exposure)

Mount: Sky-Watcher HEQ5 Pro SynScan GoTo (CdC & 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: November 01, 2010

Start Time: 00:30

Location: Beja, Portugal

Calibration: 50 Darks. 50 Flats. 50 Dark Flats.

Processing: Calibrated, aligned and stacked in DSS. Levels, curves, cropped, resampled in Photoshop. GradientXTerminator. Carboni Tools.

M31 - Andromeda Galaxy

This is my first AF project with good results. Minimal mount alignment and calibration capable of 60 second exposures. It was not a good night for AF, bad seeing (humidity), moon glow (waxing gibbous) and the ever present light pollution.

The equipment still has limitations resulting in: chromatic aberration, gradients, vignetting, curved focal plane just to say a few.

Processing needs a lot of work, im just at the start of the learning curve and with so much to learn. I just can't get the color in this photo right...

Special thanks to all the good people from APAA and Galactica forums who showed a lot of pacience and gave precious help to a noob like me.

 

 

 

 

Image Data: Andromeda Galaxy (Messier 31), Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy M32, Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy M110

Lens/Scope: Sky-Watcher 80mm

Focal Length: 400mm

F/Stop: f/5

Exposure: Stack of 120 60-second exposures (2 hour 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 16, 2010

Start Time: 21:40

Location: Beja, Portugal

Calibration: 120 Darks. 50 Flats. 50 Dark Flats.

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

Training Scope

The time came for my old Trust to rest. It simply has tremendous limitations for astrophotography (AF).
While searching, and saving some money, for my first true imager i needed something that could be used to capture those space fotons.
I choose the fast and inexpensive, budget hurt free, Sky-Watcher 80mm f/5. It's not an imager but it will have to do for now.

Let's see what can be done with it...