Trifid, my first

[spearo (Frank)]

Hello All,
I'd been getting desperate with the clouds followed by the the Moon this past week, so I braved some pretty cold temperatures tonight to race against the Moon, waiting for NGC 6514 to clear a big tree. Finally managed to snap a few shots just before luna made it's beautiful entry into the sky.

Combined two with Registax, cleaned up in Photoshop and Noiseware.

hope you like

cheers
frank

[EzyStyles (Eric)]

gee's frank. veryvery nice. what exposure time and number of images stacked is that?

[spearo (Frank)]

Thanks Eric,
Had me worried there for a second, thought i might have posted the wrong one! It's a the bottom of the image in green letters (I always deface the pics that way...I should really frame it better so the text isnt on the image itself)
I stacked two of my three shots discarding the third due to some trails caused by my impatience-the CG5 takes a few seconds to settle properly (not counting a couple of aiming shots). One is 153 seconds, the other 213 seconds, at ISO 1600.
Taken with a C9.25 XLT on CG5 at F6.3 unguided using an EOS 20Da.

Thanks, glad you liked it, worked the levels a bit in PS and used Noiseware too.

cheers
frank

[Calin]

I went out and took this pic at the same time, using S7000, ISO800, 5sec.... if you look closely you can't see anything

[spearo (Frank)]

HAHAHAHAHHAHA
that's funny Paul, i even went and looked at the enlarged picture of "Black".
The good news is that you can now try to sell your pic on the Arts market for a few million dollars!
seriously though, cant wait to see some pics from your new setup.
cheers
frank

[JohnG (John)]

Gee, the tracking on that little mount is great, your shots are coming on in leaps and bounds.

Excellent effort, wait till you start autoguiding and stacking shots.

JohnG

[RB (Andrew)]

Congrats Frank that's a great image, well done.
The colours are fantastic, focus spot on and tracking is great .

Well done.

[spearo (Frank)]

John, Anrew,
Thanks very much.
I'd been sooo keen to have a go at Trifid for so long.
The focus is always a bit of hit n miss using the Hartman mask but often times works out well
thanks
PS I'm getting close to guiding...soon...
frank

[RB (Andrew)]

How come you don't use the Live focus mode on the 20Da Frank?

[spearo (Frank)]

Andrew,
I use the Live focus function. What i do is center on a star (usually the precise goto selected star just before final slewing), switch from Bulb to the live view function 1 which zooms right into the center screen, re-center the star, switch to live view function 2, extreme zoom of the centre screen, then, using the Hartmann mask make my final finer focus.
works great. The Live view allows me to see the star being focussed magnified as if through a high power EP
f

[spearo (Frank)]

Just realised, sorry about the typo in your name earlier...i'm infamous for my typos...
sorry
f

[ving (David)]

picture wise the trifid is one of the most beautiful objects hey!

very nice shot spearo

[Striker (Tony)]

Excellant image Frank...your best so far.

[tornado33]

Yes great image, very smooth for ISO 1600 as well.
Scott

[RB (Andrew)]

Originally Posted by spearo

Andrew,
I use the Live focus function. What i do is center on a star (usually the precise goto selected star just before final slewing), switch from Bulb to the live view function 1 which zooms right into the center screen, re-center the star, switch to live view function 2, extreme zoom of the centre screen, then, using the Hartmann mask make my final finer focus.
works great. The Live view allows me to see the star being focussed magnified as if through a high power EP
f

Ahh excellent, thanks for the great tip Frank, I'll have to try that myself with the Hartmann and live focus.

Cheers

[rogerg (Roger)]

Nice sharp stars edge to edge resulting in a very pleasing wide field with no trailing, nice.

Roger.

[Lester]

Very nice indeed Frank.

[spearo (Frank)]

Thanks everyone!
Didn't expect all that great feedback!
very much appreciated.
Thanks again.
frank