Test images - Messier 27 with 120mm Equinox ED scope
Planetary nebula Messier 27 - a shell of fluorescing hydrogen (red) and oxygen ( blue) surrounds the remnants of a once active star - probably not unlike our own Sun. The white dwarf remnant star can be seen at the centre of the nebula.
The intense UV light from the white dwarf makes the surrounding ionised gases fluoresce in characteristic colours. The clouds of gas were probably shrugged off the star in the final phases of its life.
Deeper images show further shells of gas which are just hinted at here.
Size is 8.0 x 5.6 arcminutes
I have always shied away from using my SkyWatcher Equinox 120ED scope for DSOs but recently, I thought about fitting it with a top rail and attaching a guidescope.
I was trying out a new guide camera/scope combination and had some problems - it was also near full Moon which is not great for DSO imaging but overall got a reasonable result for just 10 x test subs of 300 seconds at ISO400.
I used a x0.85 matched field flattener/focal reducer which brings this down to about 760mm.
It was fairly straightforward to remove the blue/violet doublet scope star fringes using Noel Carboni's Astrophotography Actions for PS.
Id like to use this setup to chase small, faint comets in future.
I didnt measure Light Pollution given the almost full Moon.
PHD2 guiding was with a ZWO ASI290 MM mini camera and a PrimaLuce Lab 60mm f/4 guidescope. I had driver, focusing and cable problems but I should be able to sort those out.
SkyWatcher Equinox ED120mm scope with x0.85 reducer
2 inch IDAS D2 filter mounted in reducer
Modified Canon 80D
EQ6 pro mount with Rowan belt drives
50 x flat frames
80 x bias frames
27 x temperature matched dark frames from dark library
Resolution is 0.976 arcsec/pxl.
The field of view for the uncropped image from the modified Canon 80D is 1 degree 37 arcminutes x 1 degree and 5 arcminutes.
Test images - Messier 27 with 120mm Equinox ED scope
Planetary nebula Messier 27 - a shell of fluorescing hydrogen (red) and oxygen ( blue) surrounds the remnants of a once active star - probably not unlike our own Sun. The white dwarf remnant star can be seen at the centre of the nebula.
The intense UV light from the white dwarf makes the surrounding ionised gases fluoresce in characteristic colours. The clouds of gas were probably shrugged off the star in the final phases of its life.
Deeper images show further shells of gas which are just hinted at here.
Size is 8.0 x 5.6 arcminutes
I have always shied away from using my SkyWatcher Equinox 120ED scope for DSOs but recently, I thought about fitting it with a top rail and attaching a guidescope.
I was trying out a new guide camera/scope combination and had some problems - it was also near full Moon which is not great for DSO imaging but overall got a reasonable result for just 10 x test subs of 300 seconds at ISO400.
I used a x0.85 matched field flattener/focal reducer which brings this down to about 760mm.
It was fairly straightforward to remove the blue/violet doublet scope star fringes using Noel Carboni's Astrophotography Actions for PS.
Id like to use this setup to chase small, faint comets in future.
I didnt measure Light Pollution given the almost full Moon.
PHD2 guiding was with a ZWO ASI290 MM mini camera and a PrimaLuce Lab 60mm f/4 guidescope. I had driver, focusing and cable problems but I should be able to sort those out.
SkyWatcher Equinox ED120mm scope with x0.85 reducer
2 inch IDAS D2 filter mounted in reducer
Modified Canon 80D
EQ6 pro mount with Rowan belt drives
50 x flat frames
80 x bias frames
27 x temperature matched dark frames from dark library
Resolution is 0.976 arcsec/pxl.
The field of view for the uncropped image from the modified Canon 80D is 1 degree 37 arcminutes x 1 degree and 5 arcminutes.