Images - 20th Sept 2005

[Mike]

Got the mount to guide nicely now so was doing some images with 5 minute subs last night. Very bright full moon was fogging things slightly as the transparency wasn't great. Still not happy with the stars, especially their colours. I am wondering if the ED80 is out of collimation.

Firstly - IC5070 - Pelican Nebula - 60 mins in 5 min subs in Ha



NGC6888 - The Crescent Nebula HaRGB 30:15:15:15



Then finally I had a go at the moon. Not sure why there is blooming at the bottom, maybe it needed shorter exposures. This is 30 x 0.01 second subs.

[Whitters]

Blooming likely to be caused by electron cascade due to well saturation.
So as you suggest shorter exposures.

[Whitters]

I don't see much wrong with those stars Mike. THe Crescent imge is stunning.

[Rick]

Yep, nice crisp deep-sky images. I guess the moon was just too bright for the CCD.

[Mike]

Thanks. Yeah I guess it was. Im not sure how fast the shutter is on the camera, they were done at 0.01 seconds, I will see if it can go down to 0.001 and try that. That pesky moon is up for the next week so won't be able to image anything except the moon properly for a while.

[JohnP]

Mike - they look pretty impressive to me - I can't see what the issue is with the stars either... I have to say I'm impressed with the amount of images you are taking - keep it up & you'll have the whole of the Messier & NGC catalogs imaged within a year......

[Mike]

Thanks John. I have to admit I have already considered trying to collect as many of the Messier objects as possible. Saying that, the nicer objects to image are within the NGC and IC catalogues.

I'm very pleased with the mount and the scopes and although I have a long way to go and a lot to learn and I chuffed with what I have been able to produce after only 6 weeks of imaging. I think the trick is to take your time and to only do things one step at a time, learning one aspect and mastering it before moving onto the next stage.

[JohnP]

Hi Mike,

I agree NGC has some nice objects - one of my fav's is NGC 891 in Andromeda - it's an edge on spiral galaxay with a dust lane running through its equator - Visual Mag 10.. I tried imaging it at the DSC in the summer using my EOS through the 6-inch Meade - Below is the result of 5 X 45sec stacks - It's dim but you can just see it running top left to bottom right... I'm going to try with much longer exposures in Oct - it'll also be a lot higher & darker....

Give it a try if you are near Andromeda - I'm sure you'll be able to do it justice with your equipment - I'd be interested to see what you get.

Cheers,  John

[Mike]

The Moon is a bit to near Andromeda at the moment to do it justice, but I will give it a go next chance I get. Not really done a lot of galaxies at the moment as most of them are very small. Now I have the 8 inch i will be able to do them better once it is collimated.

[psg_dragon]

Stunning images, I wish I had the equipment and skill to produce images like these.
The skill part I can learn with time. The equipment, well time to trade in my ETX105 for a LX90 me thinks  

[Mike]

...or even better get something that ISN'T made by Meade