I had the opportunity on Wed, Thurs, Fri of last week to image (first completely clear nights in 11 months!). My choice of gear was driven by what I currently have that is working and what was worth shooting right now. Since I have no functioning
EQ mount, long exposure
AP was out. Since it was the new Moon (yay, I got clear skies during a new Moon - unheard of) and there aren't really any photo-worthy planets available (IMHO) all I was left with was taking Nightscape images (which I really enjoy doing). I have really been wanting to image the southern Milky Way as I have never done this before. Taking nightscapes also gave me a chance to try a new setup that I recently acquired. Here is a pic of what I used to capture the images.
So last August I needed a new tripod for a Celestron SLT mount I just bought used off of eBay ($90). After watching CN classifieds for a few days, a Meade field tripod came up for sale. Since I already have one of these (for my GT mount) I know that they are a lightweight and very stable tripod, I immediately purchased it ($40). Well, much to my surprise when it arrived it had the ETX wedge mount attached to it (at no extra charge). Since the SLT has an
EQ alignment procedure, it seemed that this was the perfect time to put this new setup into action. All that was needed to attach a Celestron
goto mount a to a Meade tripod was a circular piece of wood with a couple of holes drilled into it in the correct spots.
Since I wasn't using my AVX mount, I wouldn't be autoguiding so no computer was needed. All I used to shoot the images you're about to see was my camera attached to the mount and an intervalometer to trigger the shutter. The camera used is my Canon T3i (unmodded) with a stock 35-85mm zoom set at 35mm and
f/4.0. Focus was really finicky and some shots show better focus than the others. Also, this lens is not of very high quality (you'll see why) and I made the mistake of shooting at the lowest
f/stop (never do this, and I know better, yet I still did it). If you zoom in on any of these images you'll see that the stars around the periphery look like smudges. So I have dubbed this lens my "Monet" lens - don't get too close to the images, it spoils the effect! All the images were processed with darks, flats, and bias images.
To all you newbie APers out there, here's what you get with some relatively inexpensive gear. So without ado, the images.
First one is the general Orion area - (21 images @ 192 seconds) total 67 minutes at ISO 1600
Next is southern Canis Major down into Puppis - (25 images @ 91 seconds) total 38 minutes at ISO 1600
Next is most of Vela into the west side of Carina - (26 images @ 101 seconds) total 44 minutes at ISO 1600
And finally, most of Carina (Eta Carina visible) with just a tad bit of the east side of Vela.
Stay tuned for a mosaic of everything but the Orion image. I hope you enjoyed this fun episode after 11 long months of drought (Atacama desert drought!)
Cheers,
JT
∞ Primary Scopes: #1: Celestron CPC1100 #2: 8" f/7.5 Dob #3: CR150HD f/8 6" frac
∞ AP Scopes: #1: TPO 6" f/9 RC #2: ES 102 f/7 APO #3: ES 80mm f/6 APO
∞ G&G Scopes: #1: Meade 102mm f/7.8 #2: Bresser 102mm f/4.5
∞ Guide Scopes: 70 & 80mm fracs -- The El Cheapo Bros.
∞ Mounts: iOptron CEM70AG, SW EQ6R, Celestron AVX, SLT & GT (Alt-Az), Meade DS2000
∞ Cameras: #1: ZWO ASI294MC Pro #2: 662MC #3: 120MC, Canon T3i, Orion SSAG, WYZE Cam3
∞ Binos: 10X50,11X70,15X70, 25X100
∞ AP Gear: ZWO EAF and mini EFW and the Optolong L-eXteme filter
∞ EPs: ES 2": 21mm 100° & 30mm 82° Pentax XW: 7, 10, 14, & 20mm 70°
Searching the skies since 1966. "I never met a scope I didn't want to keep."