Tarantula Nebula

[athua (Gus)]

Had a clear night on Monday so I had a go at imaging the Tarantula Nebula

1 x 50sec @ ISO1600
10 x 60sec @ISO1600

Processed with flats and darks in DSS and Photoshop.

[LightningNZ (Cam)]

Good colour you got going on there. Stars look a little streaky towards the edges.

[athua (Gus)]

Thanks Cam.
I have noticed that with most of my images so far, the stars at the edges aren't very round and are a little streaky. It looks like the C8 has a bit of field curvature on the edges and the Focal Reducer/Flattener isn't enough to eliminate it altogether. I didn't have the budget to purchase the Celestron EdgeHD scopes (I would have loved to) which is supposed to give a much flatter field for astrophotography.

[raymo]

All your stars are elongated vertically, so tracking is not spot on, but the good news is that with the tracking spot on, the streaky stars at the
edge would be a bit less streaky.
raymo

[LightningNZ (Cam)]

You're both right I think - field curvature and trailing.

[Rex]

Nice going again Gus. I hope to get some data of this object this year some time. Hope it turns out half as good.