Waiting for Saturn again the other night - which was a bust due to poor seeing - I shot a few objects for 30s at F9 and iso 1600 with no in-camera noise reduction on the 20D for fun. These are single shots adjusted in PS and cleaned up in NeatImage - quite agressively due to the hi iso and sigle shot - but I was pleased to get these for little effort. M42, NGC3372, and the Jewel box - to use 3 different ways to describe objects.
the beauty of this is the laid back approach that must sings so much praise for a 20d and any modded ones.
If it had have been me, i would have had a 6 hour meditation, 4 hour setup and 10 minutes of exposure for the toucam to get anywhere near this detail. and then the tracking would have been out
well done john, i dream for the day to have the equipment and know how to take an occasional shot like these whilst waiting for something else.
the beauty of this is the laid back approach that must sings so much praise for a 20d and any modded ones.
If it had have been me, i would have had a 6 hour meditation, 4 hour setup and 10 minutes of exposure for the toucam to get anywhere near this detail. and then the tracking would have been out
well done john, i dream for the day to have the equipment and know how to take an occasional shot like these whilst waiting for something else.
magnificent stuff!
Well thank you - and you are 100% correct - the equipment is still waay better than the astronomer - brilliant camera the 20D - the Da and mod'ed vsns even more so from what I have seen.
Nice work John, were they prime focus or piggyback???
All at prime (well Cassegrain if you are pedantic) on the VC200L - fl 1800mm, 30s unguided with a lug and plonk polar alignment (I thought I would be shooting Saturn remember).
These must be the astro equivanlent of snapshots, no flats, no darks no stacking....quite good considering. I wonder what is a best we can get with a single 30s exposure these days?
I like the Jewel Box best, you've preserved the nice star colour.
Looking at the Eta shot reminded me of my attempt the other night, I was wondering - has anyone imaged the star it's self, with the lobes of gas visible? I gave it a quick shot with definite indication of the odd shame of the star/gas in the images, but nothing spectacular. I wonder.
I like the Jewel Box best, you've preserved the nice star colour.
Looking at the Eta shot reminded me of my attempt the other night, I was wondering - has anyone imaged the star it's self, with the lobes of gas visible? I gave it a quick shot with definite indication of the odd shame of the star/gas in the images, but nothing spectacular. I wonder.
Your image looks similar to the FOV I was getting the other night (except mine was greyscale). Nice detail in the gas throughout your FOV btw. Call me picky, or asking for too much of us amateur astronomers, but what about zooming in to a 100 x 100 pixel area around the star, and adjusting brightness for the actual star it's self and that gas coming from it, to achieve some sort of detail in that immediate gas cloud coming from the star. Perhaps even having the resolution capability to make that 100 x 100 a 400 x 400 pixel image. Achievable?
It's more just something I'm pondering, not worth sending the whole tiff over but thanks anyway. When I'm back home sometime soon I'll play around with what I have now (including what you've sent here).
