Having recently purchased a canon 550D for business purposes I thought it might be a nice idea to try my hand at some astrophotography with it.
So I dug up my old C8, joined IIS, and purchased an autoguiding setup. Given that the weather has been completely crap, since I made this decision a few weeks ago, I was hanging to get out at give it a try. With a small break in the clouds over Melbourne pending I set up my gear and polar aligned on the moon during the late afternoon.
After darkness fell I slewed over to Orion's sword and started snapping away at M42 in a race against the incoming clouds.
Here is the result:
M42 16/12/2010
Celestron C8 with Canon 550D at prime focus on Skywatcher EQ6 Pro. No filters. Starshoot autoguider via Orion ST80. 24 subs and darks @ 40secs each. Processed with DSS & PS CS5
Any suggestions are welcome.
L8r
TT