M42

[slippo74]

Definitely I'm improving the skill...
although stars seem run away from top and bottom borders.
Happy with the contrast, but the perfect focus still an utopia for me.
It is a result of 13x120 seconds.

67870

[jjjnettie]

What camera did you use Cris?
You've done the Trap to perfection!
Lovely.

[dpastern]

Cris, that's a FINE effort there. Wow!

Dave

[slippo74]

Thanks Dave and JJJ



A Canon 1000D.
It is not perfection JJJ, it took me 6 hours of Photoshop to make it look a good enough.

[TrevorW]

Cris buy yourself a program called DSLR Focus

http://www.dslrfocus.com/

might help did with me

[bmitchell82]

have a look at batinov masks or cary masks they are the best in my opinion as they don't take into account the atomospheric problems.! FWHM is good but only when you have GREAT SEEING plus the human eye is keen on angles :)give it a try.

[slippo74]

Thanks Trevor, I'm using Mac and I found iAstroPhoto an alternartive to DSLR Focus for Mac OSX (it's free). I'll give a try as soon the weather will permit

and Brendan... I didn't know that Batinov mask were good with small refrector. My understanding (totally wrong) was that an SCT is more indicated for batinov maks usage... thanks for the recommendation.

[bmitchell82]

I did a test with a friend, really it doesn't matter squat about the size or your scope Vs the size of the mask.

I had a 80mm batinov mask infront of my 10" newt and it still threw the diffraction spikes.

i had a 8" mask held at close to 2 meters from the front of my scope still throwing the diffraction spikes.! :) happy days my friend. oh and as a bonus get a free program called Batinov grabber :) makes life even easier!

[slippo74]

Thanks Brendan, very informative... just a quick question, how you managed to hold the 80mm mask in front of a 10"?
I'm sure you will reply with an easy and logical solution which will make my question silly than ever :) , but I'm really curious about it.

[TrevorW]

Brendan's got long arms :P:D:rofl: