Another M42/Sword experiment

[SkyViking (Rolf)]

Hi All, I had another go at M42 with the Canon S5IS and CHDK (See http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/CHDK for details) just to see what I could squeeze out of it.

This image is a composite of 19x16s + 27x80s @ ISO200 taken 22:49 5/12/2009 - 01:06 06/12/2009 (NZDST)

I have stretched the image as far as I could to bring out the fainter details. There is obviously plenty of noise and at this magnification the standard optics of the S5IS evidently leaves much to be desired, but all in all I'm quite pleased with how much data this camera is able to pick up.

I think with this camera I might be able to get some decent wide field shots of other similar targets such as the Carina Nebula, LMC, SMC etc.
Looking forward to try!

Hope you like the results,

Rolf

[Robbie]

Good effort,
What scope was used? FOV is good tracking seems good,
Try a few exposures 3 mins to 5mins with the same set up and I would say the results would be excellent.
If this shot was an experiment, well done

[multiweb (Marc)]

Nice one rolf. Good focus and framing. Bit noisy but nothing more data can't fix.

[SkyViking (Rolf)]

Originally Posted by Robbie

Good effort,
What scope was used? FOV is good tracking seems good,
Try a few exposures 3 mins to 5mins with the same set up and I would say the results would be excellent.
If this shot was an experiment, well done

Thanks
No scope used, just max zoom through the default lens of the Canon S5IS.
I mounted the camera on top of my real scope, just for the tracking.

Yes, longer exposures would be great. I only finished building my observatory recently and my polar alignment still needs some work. I found that I still get some drift if I expose more than 2mins when fully zoomed in with the S5IS. Easy to fix though, I just need some clear nights... Fortunately the weather seems to have improved here, finally

Originally Posted by multiweb

Nice one rolf. Good focus and framing. Bit noisy but nothing more data can't fix.

Thanks Yes there's lots of noise still. I will take more frames and see what happens. And will get that polar axis aligned.

I'm really only playing around with this basic Canon cam as something different until I buy a proper CCD next year. Thinking of the SBIG ST8300M or a QHY9/QHY11, both look like excellent options.

[Hagar (Doug)]

Very nice. Considering the size of the 2 nebulas you have captued a lot of detail in them both. Well done

[SkyViking (Rolf)]

Thank you Doug

I grabbed some more frames and was able to produce a much smoother looking image with the added data. There is still some noise, but not too bad now.
I also used the new image for my recent Orion montage (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...ad.php?t=54069)

[spearo (Frank)]

Well done,
you might also want to try higher ISO next time
I always went for ISO 800 (98% of the time really)
Will capture more of the faint stuff i think this way
cheers
frank