The Horsehead Nebula and Flame Nebula with a Zenithstar 61ii
The Horsehead Nebula and Flame Nebula with a Zenithstar 61ii
This nebula pair in Orion is one of the most photographed Deep Space Objects in astrophotography. I used a small and simple rig consisting of a William Optics Zenithstar 61ii with an inexpensive Canon T7i DSLR mounted on it. The entire telescope and camera assembly could easily fit in a small backpack with plenty of room left over for other things. The unit was mounted on an iOptron CEM25P with guiding using a small ZWO 30mm fl 120mm guidescope and PHD2 guiding software. No darks or other calibration frames were taken ... just the 21 exposures at 240 seconds each. The ISO was set to 800. The site was a Bortle 4 and the temperature was 15 C (59 F). The Canon T7i DSLR sensor temperature was 21 C (70 F).
The exposures were captured with APT software. Processing was done with Pixinsight. Polar Alignment for the evening used SharpCap Pro. It's so relaxing to take such a small telescope out and use it to capture the beauty of the heavens while sitting back nearby in a comfortable chair with a cup of hot coffee in hand ... just looking with wonder at the sights above. What a blessing these nights are.
The Horsehead Nebula and Flame Nebula with a Zenithstar 61ii
The Horsehead Nebula and Flame Nebula with a Zenithstar 61ii
This nebula pair in Orion is one of the most photographed Deep Space Objects in astrophotography. I used a small and simple rig consisting of a William Optics Zenithstar 61ii with an inexpensive Canon T7i DSLR mounted on it. The entire telescope and camera assembly could easily fit in a small backpack with plenty of room left over for other things. The unit was mounted on an iOptron CEM25P with guiding using a small ZWO 30mm fl 120mm guidescope and PHD2 guiding software. No darks or other calibration frames were taken ... just the 21 exposures at 240 seconds each. The ISO was set to 800. The site was a Bortle 4 and the temperature was 15 C (59 F). The Canon T7i DSLR sensor temperature was 21 C (70 F).
The exposures were captured with APT software. Processing was done with Pixinsight. Polar Alignment for the evening used SharpCap Pro. It's so relaxing to take such a small telescope out and use it to capture the beauty of the heavens while sitting back nearby in a comfortable chair with a cup of hot coffee in hand ... just looking with wonder at the sights above. What a blessing these nights are.