M8 and M83

[spearo (Frank)]

Hi there,
spurred on by ealier results with autoguiding i tried my luck at some more tonight after some more adjustments.
some tweaks in guidedog are showing better tracking performance. nfortunately i'm not happy with the focus (and the dust bunnies...)
anyways
M83 is a composite of 2 5minutes 20 sec shots (i was doing a 7.5 min shot when it went into hiding behind a nice big tree...
M8 however, is my record so far at 453 seconds! i would have tried for 14 minutes but the Moon had already breached the horizon...

hope you like
frank

[matt]

Well done Frank

It's all coming along very nicely.

Stars look sharp and round. Not much trailing.

I like M83 in particular

[spearo (Frank)]

Thansk Matt,
I'm happy with M83 especially compared to my only other attempt at it a while back mid May...see attached...it's enough to give you nighmares!

frank

[matt]

That's a vast improvement Frank.

Very well done.

[EzyStyles (Eric)]

great shots frank. you are producing some of the finest pics! btw is your 20d modified?

[spearo (Frank)]

Eric,
yhanks very much, though many others produce far nicer shots, I'm making sure i keep improving my own personal performance and so far i'm happy that i'm making slow steady progress.

the Canon EOS 20Da isn't "modified" per se but it's a limited edition 20D that was designed for astrophotography.
to quote Canon (http://web.canon.jp/Imaging/eos20da/index.html):

"Optical characteristics of the EOS 20Da have been optimized for astrophotography. The new infrared filter in the low-pass filter, for example, is comprised of three liquid crystal layers with different optical axes and features approximately 2.5 times higher hydrogen-alpha light sensitivity than in the EOS 20D. Reddish diffuse nebulae are clearly captured as a result — without the use of additional filters.

* The wavelength of hydrogen-alpha light is 656nm "

And it also has a Live view feature which is quite handy.

I have to say that I Loooove this camera

frank