M20 Trifid Nebula and M21 Open Cluster

[luka]

IR modded, cold-finger cooled (to 2C) Canon 450D on ED80 (with Hotech flattener)
EQ5 with custom-built belt drive
Orion luminance filter + Astronomik CLS filter
Location = few km from CBD

lights = 18 x 3min (54min total)
darks, flats and bias
Stacked in DSS and processed in StarTools

Unfortunately the clouds prevented my plans of few hours exposure.

I cracked my Baader UV/IR cut filter :mad2: so I used the Orion luminance filter instead (thank you DJScotty), sticky-taped to the flattener :lol:
It worked great to stop blooming around stars.

Thanks for looking

[blink138]

not bad at all that luka!
what do those filters do to your camera mod mate?
where about outside perth did you need to go, looks like a haf decent dark sky?
pat

[luka]

Thanks Pat.

I am only about 4km from CBD, as the crow flies, very light polluted skies. The CLS filter helps reduce the light pollution but I never compared imaging with or without it. It is hard to find time do that considering how cloudy this year has been.

M20 is quite bright and imaging from my backyard works but I tried imaging some fainter galaxies (with my ED80) and even with 4h integration time they look like fuzzy blobs. I will need to find a place with much darker skies once I finish all the modifications I am working on ATM.