The Veil Nebula
The Veil Nebula in Cygnus from my backyard in Los Alamos, New Mexico.
I shot this with a Canon EF 70-200 f/4L on an AstroTrac mount. I've tried using the 70-200 on the AstroTrac in the past, but couldn't get the object of interest in the field of view. This time I tried something different. I put a 35mm lens on the camera, centered the nebula as best I could (which turned out to not be as centered as I would have thought). Then I switched lenses to the 70-200, without moving anything. At 70mm, the nebula was not quite in view, but I played around until it was centered, then zoomed in to 200mm.
Each focal length required a new focus to be able to even see the nebula, so that took a lot of extra time (and the focus is still a bit off). By the time I got the nebula centered and focused at 200mm, it was starting to get pretty close to the horizon. The tracking of the mount is off, and I should have tweaked the polar alignment a bit more, but I was running out of time (and I had already spent so much time on this tartget, I didn't want to switch to another).
I really need to come up with some other method for pointing longer lenses on the AstroTrac. I have a few ideas, but just need to find some time to get out in the grage and make some brackets for attaching finder scopes, etc.
This was also the first time I tried an Astronomik CLS EOS-clip filter, which I think did an amazing job of cutting down the light polution.
Canon 350D modified
Canon EF 70-200 f/4L
AstroTrac TT320 mount
Astronomik CLS EOS-clip filter
20 x 4min @ f/4 and ISO 800
Stacked with DeepSkyStacker
Processed in Photoshop CS3
The Veil Nebula
The Veil Nebula in Cygnus from my backyard in Los Alamos, New Mexico.
I shot this with a Canon EF 70-200 f/4L on an AstroTrac mount. I've tried using the 70-200 on the AstroTrac in the past, but couldn't get the object of interest in the field of view. This time I tried something different. I put a 35mm lens on the camera, centered the nebula as best I could (which turned out to not be as centered as I would have thought). Then I switched lenses to the 70-200, without moving anything. At 70mm, the nebula was not quite in view, but I played around until it was centered, then zoomed in to 200mm.
Each focal length required a new focus to be able to even see the nebula, so that took a lot of extra time (and the focus is still a bit off). By the time I got the nebula centered and focused at 200mm, it was starting to get pretty close to the horizon. The tracking of the mount is off, and I should have tweaked the polar alignment a bit more, but I was running out of time (and I had already spent so much time on this tartget, I didn't want to switch to another).
I really need to come up with some other method for pointing longer lenses on the AstroTrac. I have a few ideas, but just need to find some time to get out in the grage and make some brackets for attaching finder scopes, etc.
This was also the first time I tried an Astronomik CLS EOS-clip filter, which I think did an amazing job of cutting down the light polution.
Canon 350D modified
Canon EF 70-200 f/4L
AstroTrac TT320 mount
Astronomik CLS EOS-clip filter
20 x 4min @ f/4 and ISO 800
Stacked with DeepSkyStacker
Processed in Photoshop CS3