Some Winter favourites

[Irish stargazer]

Hi

Here are a few shots I took over the last four days from my backyard during some of the coldest winter nights I can remember.
All the shots were taken through a WO Megrez 72 with an unmodded Canon 450D and skywatcher field flattener mounted on a CGE mount without autoguiding. Stacked in DSS with levels and curves in Gimp 2.0 only.

Rosette nebula 17 x 5 minute frames

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4063/4259119838_b60e0442a5_b.jpg

M42 Orion Nebula 13 x 5 minute frames

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4015/4253780666_f907330b51_b.jpg

Flame and horsehead 13 x 5 minute frames

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4050/4253779816_20244b9043_b.jpg

Pleiades M45 9 x 5 minute frames

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2779/4257441935_0a91985cc2_b.jpg

[batema]

These are favourites. Nice shots. Maybe try longer exposures with the Rosette and pleiades but overall very nice. It must be nice and cold outside and probably inside.

Mark

[CoolhandJo]

I like the nebula in the Pleiades you teased out!

[toryglen-boy]

Some good images there to be getting on with mate, my ma tells me Glasgow has been -18 for 6 weeks or something to, i would be makeing the best out of it as well!

Slainte.

;)

[TrevorW]

Just imagine the low noise from the camera at those temps

more exposures and possibly a tad longer is all you need

well done

[Irish stargazer]

Its unbelieveably cold here. The water mains have frozen so no running water. The only advantage is that the skies are relatively clear which we haven't had for a long time. Still, I am planning to move to Brisbane in a few weeks time. Better and clearer skies and nice balmy evenings. Bliss :D

[Irish stargazer]

I stacked some 3 minute frames to the 5 minute ones in my M45 picture that I had taken the previous night to give a 1hr 25 minute capture in total. It has teased out a bit more of the nebula and is a little less grainy. The bottom of the picture is bit clipped due to a mismatch in the framing between the 3 and 5 minute exposures. I think it looks better though.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2715/4262033248_b613e7beee_b.jpg

[Hagar]

Nice collection of images. From what we see on the news here about the UK weather of late it is a wonder you can get any imaging at all.

Well done.