Having a go at fixing M42's burned out core and some fixed tripod stuff.

Tzetze

The night of the 26/27th, I hoped to get some short exposures of M42's core for blending in with earlier data. It was very bright with a near-full moon but I managed to get what I was after when the moon sank low. I used nearby Alnitak in Orion's Belt for focusing the camera through a Bahtinov mask (a diffraction grating that simplifies the focusing process).

This is my first attempt at a composite of two different exposure stacks. It seems to have worked out fairly well - certainly looks better than the burned out core in an earlier stack of just the long exposures.




Alnitak as imaged through a Bahtinov Focusing Mask



Had a mess around with some fixed tripod stuff and camera lens this evening to satisfy an itch.

Casseiopeia.
66x 15s subs
45x darks
450D, Canon 18-55 kit lens @ 18mm, Stacked in DSS, Tweaked in PS CS6.



Moon.
Stack of 64 images.
ISO200, 1/250s, 300mm, f5.6.
Canon 450D, Sigma 70-300 Apo.
Stacked in Registax 5.1, Tweaked in PS CS6.

Maximus Alexander

That first photo us beautiful. Great shot of the moon too.

I can't wait to have the money to spend on the equipment to give this a try.

DubOnHoliday

excellent photos, lucky you didn't ice over last night!!!

ZeRoY

Nice Moon shot TzeTze! What sort of cropping have you on this one?

Rubecula

Great photos all round there. The M42 looks very professional and you can see the Running Man very well too. I loved the moon shot, how you got it all in one sublime photo like that I can only guess.

Excellent work, well done.

Tzetze

Thanks guys. I was happy with the results of the moon. I hadn't tried any lunar shots with that lens before and for a budget lens, it's not bad. It's a 100% crop, Zeroy. Here's a single exposure from the set, uncropped.

robertxxx

I'm sick of all this stuff.

Maximus Alexander

robertxxx wrote: »

I'm sick of all this stuff.

Uhh... what?

slade_x

robertxxx wrote: »

I'm sick of all this stuff.

Has astrophotography become personally frustrating for you? In regards to your own abilities or the abilities of others?

robertxxx

I'm only kidding! They are great photos, the only thing I have is binos and you can't see squat with them.

Maximus Alexander

robertxxx wrote: »

I'm only kidding! They are great photos, the only thing I have is binos and you can't see squat with them.

Binoculars can be pretty cool too. I remember looking at Jupiter through mine, and while I wasn't able to see a disk, I was clearly able to see three of its moons, which surprised the hell out of me.

I'm really looking forward to getting a telescope when I get back to Ireland.

Standard Toaster

That M42 picture is incredible!