M16 The Eagle

[Deeno]

Not exactly flying like an eagle, but its a start.

Had the HEQ5 and GSO F5 6" Newtonian for a few years now and have been recently collecting a few bits and pieces for long exposure astro photography.

It now has a Orion 80mm short tube with Orion autoguider II. Had to modify the HEQ5's handcontroler with a cable and auto guider port from Shoestring Astronomy.
Finally, the Nikon D200 now has a external power source, making things a lot easier.

By the time I had polar aligned and the auto guider sorted it was well after midnight and a stiff breeze had arisen, but things seemed to be working OK so the Eagle was found and away we went.

Unsure of what settings to use I ended up with 8, 8 minute exposures at iso 400? + a couple of darks.
Stacked in DeepSkyStacker and tweaked in ACDCpro.

What do you think?

What suggestions do you have?

Thanks
Deeno

[Ross G]

Nice shot Deeno.

I like the details in the core.


Ross.

[multiweb]

It's a good shot Deeno. The Eagle is hard in RGB most of the time at that focal length because you always get star bloating. Especially if as you said you imaged under the breeze. Considering all that it's still a very decent result. The only acceptable widefields I ever got on the eagle were narrowband. Ha or Ha Oii Oii blends. This one is one to get close up in RGB. Wide doesn't do it justice.

[Deeno]

Thanks Ross
Say hello to my Mum and Dad for me as they live just own the road a bit.

Yes, thanks Marc. I believe you are spot on.
I was regreting my choice of targets after the first few frames. It was fun finding it under a moon lit, light polluted sky, haven't been "star hopping" for a while.

It was pleasing to get a result. Have a old 2xteleconverter somewhere, wonder if that will work?

[multiweb]

Yes - if your optics support the magnification you'll get more details. You'll have to tighten your guiding though or shorter exposures. Good luck. :thumbsup:

[RobF]

Still a very respectable M16 though. I often pine for a bit more FOV and suspect you're probably on a winner sticking with the 6" Newt for a while. You can learn so much and unbeatable bang for buck.

[iceman]

Good start Deeno, didn't know you were getting into the deep space stuff. Well done.

[Hagar]

Nice start Deeno. A bit of work on guiding and focus and you will nail it.