Horsehead region - single 15-min exposure with 90mm refractor & DSLR

[Omaroo]

I ran a little experiment with myself a couple of nights ago to see what I could pick up in a single 900-sec exposure in the B33 region with my little Sky-90 running at f/4.5 and a bog-standard Canon 40D at ISO800. It ain't the smoothest (no stacking), but I'm reasonably impressed with how much light this little 90mm scope can suck in in 15 minutes. Given that the 40D is un-modded, it is a pretty reasonable result I reckon.

EDIT: Just added one I did at ISO1600, merely converted from RAW in Canon DPP and tweaked a little in Photoshop. The colour is better when initially processed by DPP than Camera RAW, as is evident. Again - single exposure for 900 seconds, no dark, no flat, no nothin'.

[noswonky]

I'm impressed.

[Octane]

Wow, Chris.

You weren't wrong, that has picked up an enormous amount of nebulosity for the un-modded camera. Dang! I bet the fast scope certainly helps with that.

I've only ever tried ten minutes at f/7.5 at ISO-1600 on the 5D Mark II and didn't get anywhere near that much colour.

Well done. : )

H

[Bassnut]

wow, given a single 15min exposure with a non modded (that itself is a challenge) 40D with only 90mm, thats freeking awesome :P :thumbsup:.

I love these the most with the least (if they come out like this) efforts, qudos to you sir :bowdown:

[Doomsayer]

Nice one Chris!
The 'less is more' approach wins through.

guy

[bloodhound31]

Awesome sub Chris. That time of year again huh! You have inspired me to give it another go mate.:thumbsup:

Baz.

[Lester]

Very nice Chris, your set-up has very good potential.

[Omaroo]

Thanks Peter, Humayun, Fred, Guy, Barry & Lester. I've just uploaded its ISO1600 brother. I pre-processed the RAW in DPP this time (rather than Camera RAW), and the purpleish neb cam out a more faithful hydrogen-red. 'Mazing! :)

[Bassnut]

whoa, OK, the noise is starting to intrude there (1600iso).

Hang on, you saying both images have NO dark?.

No, thats impossible, you cant do 15mins with no dark (or cooling), fess up Chris, whats up?

[Omaroo]

:shrug:

Nope - no darks at all Fred, and no cooling. :) Ambient temp was about zero deg C. The ISO1600 version was very over-exposed after 15 minutes, given that while the sky was reasonably dark, it wasn't a Coonabarabran sky by any means. DPP flattened the highlights (most of the frame) and a gaussian blur in Photoshop reduced the noise somewhat. Rooly-trooly, scout's honour. :thumbsup: The 40D leaves the amps off until read-out, and thermal noise is minimal in this camera. Maybe lucky it's a good one?

[Octane]

Thumbsup to you for using DPP! :D

H

[strongmanmike]

Having a history in astrophotography that dates back to 1982 I remember when the HH was "the" challenge target photographically with film, the idea that a single 15min exposure with a little telescope could show this (and almost intantly too if you process it on the spot) would have been fanciful and out right preposterous :lol:

Nice test Chris

Mike

[DavidU]

amazing Chris:thumbsup:

[DavidTrap]

Imagine what it would have been like through your old 102... :P :P :P

Great effort Chris. If the clouds every disappear from SEQ during the appropriate phase of the moon, I'll give it a go!

DT

[Bassnut]

Ahh, that wouldve helped :thumbsup:.

[Omaroo]

Cheers Mike, David & David :)

FS-102? What's that?.......... :question:

:lol:

[midnight]

Chris, I'm getting excited already :jump2: as because I am still only just starting to experiment with stacking, I often do 1 frame shots and trying to get the best out of 1 frame for now as I learn more. The moon is the only one I am starting to get confident with stacking (with your tips too!)

Can't wait now for a good night and go and try my 40D!

One of the reasons why I joined IIS was that I had the 40D and a telescope but never genuinely attempted astrophotography until about June this year when I saw a truly beautiful :eyepop: photo from Octane I think posted late last year with the 40D and 200mm lense (both I have) of the horsehead area and your single shot gives me some idea what I could theoretically get as I start to move into deep sky.

You've got be rapped in the outcome of that :thumbsup:

Thanks for sharing!!

Cheers,
Darrin...

[Octane]

Darrin,

Thanks for the compliments. : )

I believe this is the image you're referring to: http://members.optusnet.com.au/mrozycka/Cootamundra/Cootamundra_20091024_Sword_Belt_Ori on.html

H

[midnight]

Yep! That's the one I was referring to. :2thumbs:

Your photo along with Chris' single shot inspires me to go out at learn more as I had no idea the 40D was capable of those images.

Thanks again H :thanx: for the link - I love that pic!

I still need to improve my scope aligning and venture into auto guiding - there's so much to learn!!

Cheers,
Darrin...

[Omaroo]

Thanks Darrin :)

You're coming along uhmm... rather quickly... and you'll be posting deep sky images in no time. I guess that the point of this post was to show how a photographically quick scope (f/4.5) and a decent DSLR can perform given a chance. Guiding will be of real importance - as this was a 15 minute exposure, so polar alignment is also very important.

[RobF]

Great work Chris for single subs!!
Man, I can't wait to feast my pixels on Orion this year. Bring it on!!! :D