xmas eve under the stars

jsigone · Joined: 21 Oct 2011 Posts: 30 Location: San Diego, CA

Finally got off my lazy bum that has been playing Battlefield 3 too much and get my rig outside while on a moonless night. Not really a lens per say but is manual focus Very Happy

Hardware:
Scientific Explorer 152mm Mak-Newt F4.8 (731mm FL)
Celestron ASGT5 mount
Canon XS/1000D (self mod) with Astronomiks CLS-CCD clip in
50mm Autoguider/SSAG

Software:
Nebulosity 2, CS4,Fitworks

Got about 2.5hrs on Pleiades before it hit the meridian flip

M45 Pleiades 31 x 5 min iso1600 with Canon 1000D by jsigone, on Flickr

Then got 90 mins on the Rosette before the camera battery died

Rosette Nebula 18 x 5min iso1600 with Canon 1000D by jsigone, on Flickr

shauttra · Joined: 17 Nov 2009 Posts: 778 Location: Latvia

Nice!!!

David · Expire: 2013-01-25

Nice work. How do you compensate for San Diego's light pollution?

jsigone · Joined: 21 Oct 2011 Posts: 30 Location: San Diego, CA

I use a light pollution filter that blocks out sodium emitted lights. Without its I can only have the shutter open for 2mins before its all washed out and can't even spot a single star. With the LP filter, I worry more about the camera's sensor temp that generate noise oppose to LP. I also use a Ha(red) filter on nights with the moon up. Those results in black & white images until I mix it with the color data. Results in something like this....

IC 1396 Ha 14 x 10min iso1600 vert by jsigone, on Flickr

PLUS the colors data

IC 1396 30 x 5 min darker by jsigone, on Flickr

Combines into this for the final product, about 5 hrs worth of data here

Ha-HaR-GB IC 1396 with Canon by jsigone, on Flickr