NGC 3576 Old School

[Mickoid]

I got 75mins in Bortle 7 skies on Friday night in rather warm conditions with some shots before and as the waning gibbous moon was rising. I used a SW 6 inch f5 reflector with a modded Canon 550d on a HEQ5 pro mount. 30 X 60 sec UVIR cut at 800iso unguided then 8 X 360 sec Ha at 1600 iso guided once the moon had brightened the sky. Not a patch on some of the great shots of this object posted here but something to show using basic equipment and limited data. :)

[rustigsmed]

Nice work from the old 550d Mick!
The star colours look great. Some more data will help with the nebula, its pretty thin even if it were a cooled cmos/ccd.

cheers

[xa-coupe]

You can clearly see the 'statue'... it is a great image in it's own right IMO.

[Imme]

Great work Mick!

Challenging conditions Friday for a dslr for sure...and the moon!

You never cease to amaze

[multiweb]

Very good considering it was shot with a DSLR. Not an easy one for an uncooled camera. :thumbsup:

[Robert_T]

Looks great esp given the kit and conditions. Great star colour as well.

[Mickoid]

Thanks Rob, I guess that's one thing it's got in it's favour over the narrow band filters - the stars retain their natural colours.

Thanks Marc, it was certainly helped along with the addition of the Ha filter. Might have been OK without it at a dark sky site but from the Melbourne suburbs it would have shown very little detail.

You're probably
amazed that I'm still using a DSLR! I'm waiting for it to die so I've got an excuse to buy a descent astro camera. There was a fair bit of thermal noise under the warm conditions and 6 min subs didn't help keeping the sensor cool. Thanks for your comments, Jon.
Thanks Jeff, glad you liked it.

Thanks Russell, more data for sure, the weather hasn't been kind for astrophotography in Melbourne of late so getting more data is the real issue. Star colour is something I try and achieve as I think it always adds a nice touch to your shots.

[Ryderscope]

Good work with the old 550D. My 550D was my first foray into digital astrophotography and it produced some excellent results. I’m sure you will have a lot of fun with that set up.