First DSO light FLT110 - Eta Carinae

[vash]

Finally got out under the moon free sky with a mission to take a decent shot, pretty sure I got one except for a few little things.

I looked through this scope visually the other night and was very impressed, how clear and how many stars you could see in omega cent, I could not wait to get out imaging.
I tried a few new things this time, the biggest would be using remote capture so I sat inside in the warmth while the laptop did the clicking away. I also used more darks and for the first time flats. To take the flats I used a a combination of my laptop and paint to give a completely white flat screen. seemed to have worked too.

The one problem I'm having is over corrected coma from the MPCC which is noticeable in the full size image, can't do anything about it until the W/O FR/FF come in, till then I have to persevere.

Anyway on with the details

FLT110 plus MPCC
guided on eq6 pro
Modded 450D remote captured
24 x 3 minute exposure
16 darks
16 flats
stacked in DSS and processed in Photoshop cs3

the first is the full frame the second is a crop, not sure what percentage though.

[Hagar]

Very nice Ashley. You may find the problems you have are caused by the corrector. You shouldn't need it with the FLT. The correct FR/FF will make all the diference.
Good luck with it.

[vash]

Yeah, at the moment the only way to attach the camera to the scope is though the MPCC, nothing to screw the camera onto, should have the FR/FF in a week or two. I tried using the adapter from my skywatcher but it didn't seem to work right, didn't sit straight and had weird shaped stars.

[RB]

Very nice shot Ashely.
I like the colour and nice detail too.

Good to see you using an ample amount of darks and flats, it makes all the difference.

Good work.

[desler]

That is a very nice image indeed, you must be excited about your future targets, all seems to be going well! Look forward to seeing more!


Darren

[telecasterguru]

Nice shot and great colour and detail.

Frank

[Alchemy]

you will be happy with the detail the finger is clearly visible next to the keyhole.

the correct flattener should help improve the outside areas, i tried an mpcc with the ed80, the results were less than spectacular.

if you have some of the early Australian Sky and telescope magazines, check out the images by a guy called Chris Willington, they were all shot with a w/o 110, terrific images, the scope certainly has great capabilities. It should give you years of enjoyment.

people praise the TAKs and the Televue scopes, but these W/O scopes are not to be underestimated and can produce the goods.

clive.

[vash]

Thanks for all the kind words. I am happy with the result. I'm going to increase exposure for my next shot though, and might try for a galaxy.

I think with some more processing I could get more detail out of this too, this was just a simple clean up, I tried one with Hipass filtering and shows some good sharpening in certain area's.

[TrevorW]

Nice one Ash one of my favorite targets :thumbsup:

[multiweb]

That's a very nice shot. The focus is spot on. Great details. :thumbsup: