Starting to get the hang of this

[Jay-qu]

With the recent Solar events out of the way, I made my second trip out to a dark sky to do some deep-space imaging. It was a beautifully clear, so much so that I got distracted just taking wide Milkyway shots :) I did however also manage to get about 30mins (45sec subs) of data on the Trifid and Lagoon Nebulas. Here are the results, all shot with a Canon 500D either through Skywatcher 100ED on CG5, or with Canon EF-S 18-135mm @ 18mm f/3.5.

Unfortunately the city's sky glow entered a few of the shots and my polar align could have been better.. I'll get to guiding one day, but for now I've still got learning and improving to do without it.

Thanks for looking :)

[graham.hobart]

Great shots!
man I am so jealous of your dark site!

[NCC-2893]

Very nice. The milkyway shots,tripod single exposure?

[saysme]

Nice shots Jay-qu.

[Astro_Bot]

Very nice. Love the Milky Way and nebula shots. I'd say you're doing pretty darn well for a "beginner"!

[Jay-qu]

Thanks guys :)

And NCC-2893, the first one with streaks is just on a tripod, the second was piggybacked, both single exposures ~2.5 mins at 1600ISO. The third is a stack of about 3x2.5min exposures.

[Setae]

Your shots look great, well done. The one of the milky way with the light pollution actually looks really pretty, almost surreal.

[jez]

Jay-qu

What you have posted is what I would like to achieve. One day!

Great shots. Well done.

Jez

<damn your darkness>