After having high hopes for last Saturday night after a lovely clear day, the clouds started to move in as I finished polar alignment. Despite the conditions I imaged anyway with Maxim beeping plaintively to complain of lost guide stars.
It cleared up around midnight and I awoke to find the data wasn't a complete disaster (thanks to ACP for looking after things while I got some shuteye). I'm not unhappy with the results although some may think my processing a little over the top. I'm still wondering if I went a bit too far myself
This was my first outing to dark skies with the Ceravolo 300 Astrograph and I'd have to call it a success since I came home with an image. With the weather we've been having in SE Qld that's no mean feat.
Scope: Ceravolo C300 @ f/4.9 = 1470mm FL, Atlas focuser
Mount: AP900
Camera: U16M
Filters: Astrodon E series Gen 2 LRGB
Guiding: Lodestar / MMOAG
Image scale: 1.26 arcsec/pixel
Exposures: 12x200s R, 12x300s G, 12x300s B, 36x300s Lum (6 hours)
Attached below are images of:
- the complete FOV
- NGC6559, IC4685, B302, B303
- IC1274
Larger versions are here:
http://rickstevenson.smugmug.com/Ast..._ps_med-X3.jpg
http://rickstevenson.smugmug.com/Ast...ps_crop-X3.jpg
http://rickstevenson.smugmug.com/Ast...ps_crop-X3.jpg
Constructive criticism appreciated.
Thanks,
Rick.