Imaging the Califoria Nebula @f7

Whilst waiting for the Rosette to be clear of a tree the other night I had a play and took 3x 20 minute exposures of the California nebula. I have imaged this object before with the old set up imaging at @4.96 focal length of 446mm I was achieving a lovely wide field image encompassing the whole of the nebula. The new system is not as fast with the FLT110. Even with the dedicated TMB field flattener there is no reduction in the focal lenth so I now image at f7 at 770mm. So I just wanted to post 2 pics from the old system to the new. I had initial concerns over exposure length with the increase in focal ratio but my concerns were soon dissipated with the sensitivity of the new camera. I will of course need to mosaic a few of the larger targets. I cant wait to post some results.

 

Addendum

I have been learning a few new processing techniques Below is an update to the above to include a selective unsharp mask anda high pass filter. An amazing difference for 1 hours worth of exposure.

M33 The Triangulum Galaxy.

 The weather recently has been quite good. Forecast was excellent and clear the whole night. No work either for me this week so I decided to go an all nighter. Happy that the mount was working fine, I decided that 10 minute exposures would be the order of play. My Eastern view is excellent and suffers no light pollution so should not be too detremental of the Canon 40D in noise. I managed to grab 220 minutes in total in 10 minute subs. As this is a test for the new set up I have yet to take 10 minute darks, so no darks subtraction. Stacked in DSS and processed in Imagesplus I am pleased with the result. Pic 2 is a reprocess by fellow Blogger Andrew via his pix insight software. Considerable difference in detail. I may just have to invest in. Just not sure if I have the time at present to learn a whole new processing pathway.

Wave goodbye, Say hello

I have said goodbye to trusted old friends, Sold it to fund an upgrade, Welcome to your new home.

New mount Ioptron Ieq45mark 2 with GPS & 8407 controller.
William Optics FLT110 DDG TMB Triplet------Starlight express SXVF M25C colour camera
William Optics GTF81 5 element apo-------------Starlight express Lodestar guider.

Me and a fellow Breckland AS member Andy went to collect on Tuesday, Since then I haven't been out of the observatory carefully setting up aligning/balancing and installing cables and new software.
The biggest issue I had was trying to remove ASCOM 5 to upgrade to 6. It had also disabled Microsoft. net framework. Had to remove and update to version 4. So thanks to Andrew this time for his wisdom.
I am pleased yo say that is now all done and time to play.
Image acquisition will be done with and old favourite of Images plus. They support SX cameras via ASCOM . I intend to sell the Canon 40d soon but not before I call on a few faint fuzzies to test the new scope. I also can't wait for the next lunar cycle as you can see from previous posts I have developed my interest in lunar photography. I am eagre to test the resolving power and the quality of images I can come up with.

 

So time to close the dome it has clouded over. Goodnight all.