Well Sydney has finally turned on a few cloudless nights this week and I got out to have a play with the scope.
As I enjoy wide field photography piggy backing on top of my 100ed I decided to see if I could bag any sort of galaxy image just for the fun of it. So I whacked on my very cheap and old 75-300mm lens (I must get a decent long range zoom one day), pointed toward the Leo triplet and shot off 15 x 150sec shots. Well to my surprise the 3 galaxies were visible and below is the result. As I was running out of time I only got to take 5 darks.
Not having taken flats at the time and the vignetting of this old lens being horrendous, I took 17 flats the next night (I know..not ideal) but I tried to replicate the conditions as best I could. I also seem to loose a bit of data trying to get rid of the light pollution. Are there any filters for camera lens’s to help reduce LP?
Taken with Canon 40D, 75-300mm@300mm, f5.6, iso1600. Stacked in DSS and curves and levels in PS, unguided.
Any tips on taking these types of shots very much welcome.
Well done.
Your flats seem pretty good. There is a little gradiant from top to bottom and there are ways of removing the gradient. I have only done it with Iris but others will know how to do it with other programs.
Great shot. I can imagine your excitement when they came in and there were three great galaxies. I think you should also be pretty happy with minimal star trailing. Good work. Give guiding a go and the shots will be even better.
