M42 revisited

Ffffffffreezing!

Spent the day sailing in the freezing water and then iced the cake by standing in the freezing dark and deciding that I don't have the right equipment for photographing Saturn.

Turned my attentions to M42 at prime focus. Much nicer shot than the one I took with the 200mm lens. Reading up on masks and have a 1 sec photo of the Trapezium to work on.



Date: 23rd January 2005
Time: 21:34 hrs UTC
Camera: Canon EOS300D at prime focus of LXD75 10" Schmidt Newtonian F4.0
Mount: LXD75 GEM
Exposure: 30 secs
ISO: 400
Processing: PSP9 - Black and White Points

James,
Now thats what I'm talking about !!!
Thats a fine image, you must have a dark sky, how did you find the tracking?
Would you not go for a higher iso speed? so you can get more detail.
Sorry about all the Qs,

Ooooh James *that* is one seeeeexxxyyyyy photo!!!

I cant beleive it worked that well with almost a full moon in the sky. I am sooooooo buying that camera. There is a guy in work who might be selling his and if so I will definitely buy it!!!

Did you take out the IR blocking filter or is that with the filter in?

James,
Now thats what I'm talking about !!!
Thats a fine image, you must have a dark sky, how did you find the tracking?
Would you not go for a higher iso speed? so you can get more detail.
Sorry about all the Qs,

Crisp is not the word for the sky here. No whispy, high-level cloud at all. Trouble is, the moon is near full and only in the next constellation. I did try higher ISOs but the photos were washed out. As the Moon wanes and moves on into Leo then I will push it.

I can't increase the exposure length with prime focus otherwise the tracking is all out. I really need to think about building a permanent pier and shed and then I can sit there all night, tweaking the scope whilst running something like GuideDog, knowing that I can come back to the equipment the next evening with no setup to do.

Ooooh James *that* is one seeeeexxxyyyyy photo!!!

I cant beleive it worked that well with almost a full moon in the sky. I am sooooooo buying that camera. There is a guy in work who might be selling his and if so I will definitely buy it!!!

Did you take out the IR blocking filter or is that with the filter in?

Thanks. I like this website best of all because we are always helping out when things go wrong or pushing each other to go one better when it goes right.

I have a standard off-the-peg camera. As I said in another thread, if I get round to using Hydrogen filters then it will be with a hi-res mono CCD camera. I use this camera for daytime landscapes too and would lose the sky without the IR filter.