Astro Nut » Astrophotography

M22

Russ — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 13:23:02 +0000

Messier 22 (M22, NGC 6656) is one of the brightest and remarkable clusters in the sky and next to M13 this my favorite Globular Clusters. M 22 is also a great binoculars object!
At 10,400 light years, M22 is one of the nearer globular clusters. At this distance, its 32′ angular diameter, slightly larger than that of the Full Moon

This is 1 subs @ 8 sec
Scope Orion 120mm f/5.0
Camera Meade DSI-C
Mount CG5GT unguided
Stacked with MaxIm DL Essentials Edition
processed with PhotoShop 6

Wild Duck Cluster

Russ — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 14:11:02 +0000

The weather cleared and I got to go out to the Astro Hut last night! My tracking was off and I could not find a bright enough star do to a drift alignment. So I only got this 1 picture of M11 (Wild Duck Cluster) Its pretty easy to find in Scutum and it a good bino object too. Here is a Telrad finder chart M11 PDF If you look at the chart you will see that M11 in in a target rich area of the sky. There is 12+ other Messier Objects just to the south!

This is 1 subs @ 8 sec
Scope Orion 120mm f/5.0
Camera Meade DSI-C
Mount CG5GT unguided
Stacked with MaxIm DL Essentials Edition
processed with PhotoShop 6

Orion 120mm f/5.0

Russ — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 15:10:56 +0000

A scoping buddy let me borrow his Orion 120mm f/5.0!
I have sort of been wanting one of these scopes to use for astrophotography!
Last night I got my chance.
The Moon was at 89% and viewing was not that good.
I am more then surprised at how nice the picture came out!

Here is M13 The Hercules Globular Cluster
This is 10 subs @ 15 sec
Scope Orion 120mm f/5.0
Camera Meade DSI-C
Mount CG5GT unguided
Stacked with MaxIm DL Essentials Edition
processed with PhotoShop 6

The only trouble I had was I could not use the 2 inch diagonal but had to use a 1 1/4 inch….. And that was not a big deal at all!

Over all Orion 120mm f/5.0 is a joy to use for both astrophotography and visual.
This scope is going on my wish list……

M20 Trifid Nebula

Russ — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 13:14:07 +0000

This is M20 the Trifid Nebula in Sagittarius

This is 11 subs @ 15 sec
Scope Starblast 4.5 imaging
Camera Meade DSI-C
Mount CG5GT unguided
Stacked with MaxIm DL Essentials Edition
processed with PhotoShop 6

This what one of the subs look like.

M57 The Ring Nebula

Russ — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 15:57:45 +0000

M57 The Ring Nebula is one of my favorite deep sky object.
It BRIGHT for a planetary nebulae and its very easy to find!
I can see it in my little Celestron StarSeeker 80mm.
I was out in the HUT till the wee hours this morning and M57
cleared the trees so I had the chance to take this!

This is 1 subs @ 15 sec
Scope Starblast 4.5 imaging
Camera Meade DSI-C
Mount CG5GT unguided
Stacked with MaxIm DL Essentials Edition (it comes with the SS II)
processed with PhoteShop 6

Finding M57 is pretty easy.
Find the constellation Lyra,
look for the diamond-shaped set of 4 stars just below Vega.
M57 is in between the bottom pair stars.

Here is a PDF star chat of Lyra

Moon 25 Jun

Russ — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 15:27:39 +0000

I got up a bit early this morning to go out to the Astro Hut.
This is 3 subs @ 15 sec
Scope Starblast 4.5 imaging
Camera Orion StarShoot II
Mount CG5GT unguided
Stacked with MaxIm DL Essentials Edition (it comes with the SS II)
processed with PhoteShop 6

The Moon is waning gibbous