Beautiful night last night. New moon, and the Diablo winds had swept away most of the haze and smoke from recent fires. I played with piggybacking for the first time, with my camera strapped to the top of the tracking telescope with a velcro contraption. This is the California Nebula in Perseus, NGC 1499. Ten 1 minute frames, stacked. 200mm, ISO 800, f5.6, from Albany, CA.
Here’s a part of the Veil Nebula near 52 Cygni I captured a couple of nights ago. I’ve always liked this nebula but never been able to see or image it myself. Unlike the Ring and Dumbbell, it’s a supernova remnant. Ten stacked 30 second frames taken from my back yard under pretty good conditions (good for my back yard, that is; I could barely see 52 Cyg, which clocks in at M4.3). The fog is back today, but the next clear night I’ll see if I can image the Saturn Nebula in Aquarius.
Modification successful; Camera disassembled and IR-Cut filter (LPF2) removed. Here are comparison shots (w/o post processing). Left is the modified Canon 1000D, Right is the stock 1100.
My first deep sky object. M57, the Ring Nebula, ISO 6400 35 seconds, 8″ SCT with unmodified DSLR @ prime focus. Just got the Celestron 8″ SCT from Salvation Army and fixed the drive. It tracks pretty well off a 9v. Working on modifying another DSLR to remove the filter that blocks the red colors.
Here’s the gear I use. Canon T3, Bogen tripod, barn door mount, and Nook Color tablet with DLSR controller.
Spent the weekend in Mendocino where the sky’s were clear, except for some moisture in the air. It gave a good test of the barn door setup.
Scott's Sky Shots 