m31 & m45 Tuesnoad - EOS300D

[JohnP]

OK - Saturday night was beautifully clear & for whatever reason nothing was working with my normal imaging setup. I couldn't align scopes, then guiding wouldn't work then K3 kept locking up so after wasting about 4-hrs & loads of swearing (sorry Fay I know that you were near by) & about 5 laptop resets I was all but ready to pack up & give my telescope a kick & reach for the nearest beer can... Chris (thks mate) persuaded me to get my EOS digital SLR out & put it on the WO ZS66. I took a lot of convincing but decided to try it - I used my 0.8X flattener & set ISO to 800. After eventually sorting out my guiding I managed 35 mins of m31 & 40mins of m45 all in 5min subs. I finished up (all on my lonesome) at about 3.30am Sunday morning.. Below are stacked results - All in all I'm glad I made the effort - I hope you like & let me know what you think...?

Cheers,  John.

[Jim]

John

These are fantastic, the nebulosity around the Pleiades is beautifull and M31 has a lovely 3D quality to it.  I'm inspired to have a go with my camera now.

Jim

[Tony G]

John.

These are absolutely brilliant, I'm well impressed with my favourite M31, the detail is outstanding, and this has now motivated me more to image the same and hopefully get results somewhere near the quality of these two images.

Tony G

[Mike]

WOH!!! That M31 is truly fantastic. Lovely images John.

[Rocket Pooch]

Brilliant john well worth the nag, download stoik noise removal and run the images through the software its a 15 day expiry, but its worth a try...

http://www.stoik.com/

I really like both the EOS and ZS on M31 gives an excellent fov.

Chris


Jim & Tony, no excuses guys you have newer camera's than John so off you go do some deep sky imaging....

I might even get my camera out.

[Fay]

Ooooooh, John, I am so inspired now to get the EOS going!!!! I was waiting to see what these two came out like, they are fantastic. Considering you were probably in panic mode, I know what it's like I often get all of those problems myself.

I have sent off for one of those card bus adaptors, so EOS could be next camera out.



Fay 

[JohnP]

Thanks all for the kind comments - I was pretty chuffed with the outcome especially seeing the start I had to the evening.. It was good not to totally waste the clear skies.

Glad also that I have inspired many to give their DSLR's a try - so nice being able to do one shot widefield colour imaging without all the hassle of LRGB/ filters etc. Guiding is also a lot easier as well....

Tony - images like these should certainly be within your grasp with the equipment you have - I took some one min jpeg's when I was focussing etc. to check framing & these showed lots of details.. You should go for it...

Cheers,  John

[Rocket Pooch]

Tony,

Do you want me to make you a side by side plate for the camera and telescope?

Chris

[Tony G]

Chris,

That would be great, I have a box of those aluminium brackets and a couple of a different type, could you make use of these to make the bracket, if so give us a ring.
And thanks Chris for the offer.

Tony G

[Whitters]

Superb images John, like the colour balance.