First Tracked Image - M42

[XENOBLADE2 (Shiv)]

My first tracked project! After 2 years and 2 months of doing untracked DSO imaging I've finally been able to do tracked imaging! Here's the image of the Orion Nebula I took over 2 nights. In total I got 3 hours of intergration. I borrowed my mate's Canon 70-200mm F/2.8L lens along with my recently acquired HEQ5.
Overall I'm extremely pleased with how this came out, especially the sharpness of the image blew me away as I've never seen my own data being this sharp!

Details:
362x30s (3 hours)
200mm
f/2.8
Unmodded Canon 650d
HEQ5 Belt-Modded

Stacked and Processed in Pixinsight and Siril. Very happy with how this image turned out. Can't wait to image more stuff tracked 👀. The image is really sharp as well which I'm extremely pleased about.

Astrobin Image:https://www.astrobin.com/z7ztx6/

[Leo.G (Leo)]

Wow, you must be impressed with the outcome, its beautiful!
You've answered a question burning at the back of my pea sized brain, I have an astro-trac I'm yet to get out and play and Orion (M42) is my primary target. I have plenty of images taken through my 8" RC using from memory maybe my D810 (or maybe a small astro camera, I honestly don't remember) but I've been trying to decide on exactly which lens I want to use for the target and I have a nice older 80-200 f2.8ED, 16 element Nikon lens in with all of my other junk which I purchased new in 91.
Though if the camera doesn't come back from the repair centre soon it will be on my Player one Neptune (178 colour sensor, again, I think) in which case I may go to my Samyong 135mm f1.4. Once the moon dies down a little and health improves.


The 650D is an APS-C sensor isn't it?
In which case my 80-200 will be fine on my player one camera, better on my Nikon eventually, hopefully.

[XENOBLADE2 (Shiv)]

Originally Posted by Leo.G

Wow, you must be impressed with the outcome, its beautiful!
You've answered a question burning at the back of my pea sized brain, I have an astro-trac I'm yet to get out and play and Orion (M42) is my primary target. I have plenty of images taken through my 8" RC using from memory maybe my D810 (or maybe a small astro camera, I honestly don't remember) but I've been trying to decide on exactly which lens I want to use for the target and I have a nice older 80-200 f2.8ED, 16 element Nikon lens in with all of my other junk which I purchased new in 91.
Though if the camera doesn't come back from the repair centre soon it will be on my Player one Neptune (178 colour sensor, again, I think) in which case I may go to my Samyong 135mm f1.4. Once the moon dies down a little and health improves.


The 650D is an APS-C sensor isn't it?
In which case my 80-200 will be fine on my player one camera, better on my Nikon eventually, hopefully.

Hey Leo,
Yes the 650D is APS-C. I reckon this would be a good experiment with your camaras. Personally, I would use the Player One camara as those sensors while have a high readout noise, the Quantum Efficiency of them would be better. Furthermore, as there is no LPF filter, it would allow Ha to come through better on the images. However there would be a compromise. The small FOV of the 178 would make tracking important and finding M42 would be harder due to the FOV. This would be a fun little thing to do with the rokinon 135. I'm quite a fan of large DSOs being done with small sensors/high focal lengths

[Leo.G (Leo)]

Tracking I can do with a GOTO mount but with accurate PA the Astro-Trac is supposed to be very good. Finding the target however, though I do have semi dark regional skies, maybe set up another mount with my 80mm Megrez (or larger scope) and a green laser and try and set up a second green laser accurately on the rig on the Astro-Trac, it's doable if I can be bothered. actually I wouldn't need a second green laser (which I have), just target the first one already aligned.
Last night I noticed Orion was achievable long before the moon came up over the mountains but I'm having a minor heath issue and couldn't get out. It's usually health or weather.....
One day, I'll enjoy it even more when I eventually get to it.


The Samyong 135mm (Rokinon) isn't ED like my 14mm unit and I haven't played with it at all since I found I couldn't achieve focus at infinity at f1.4. I bought it used through eBay, a common issue with many of these lenses and quickly swapped out if purchased new (my 14mm was the same). The guy on eBay babbled on about with live view you do this and that (I do not remember) but at the time I only had an old Nikon D80 without live view. However it will probably be a better image if I stop it down to f4.5/5.6 anyway, maybe a little more sharpness in the depth and longer exposures are fine if properly tracking. As mentioned, I've never used the lens and got done by an unscrupulous fleabay seller.
Now my Nikon D810 is in for repairs and I have no idea if it will even be back before Christmas (3 or 4 weeks, still waiting on parts in last communication) and I'd rather test it on a full frame sensor for sharpness when cropped/zoomed in (plus 36.x mega pixels compared to 10.2 on the old D80 which wasn't as impressive recently on the moon (it used to be)).