Category Archives: Deep-Sky Imaging

Kemble’s Cascade

Last night was a very rare night.  Clear, Moonless, and the Milky Way like I’ve never seen it before from the New Forest Observatory – magic 🙂

I used the 200mm Canon lens with the M26C OSC CCD on the mini-WASP array to capture Kemble’s Cascade.

31 subs at 5-minutes per sub with a 52mm IDAS filter on the front of the 72mm lens (so the diffraction spikes are artificial).

The whole of Delphinus

We’ve recently had  a few clear Moonless nights, rare events, great for imaging.

I piggy-backed a Canon 5D MkII DSLR and a Canon 200mm lens on the C11 and chose as my target the constellation Delphinus.  Reason – the imaging combo has a field of view of 10 x 7 degrees which will cover this small constellation.

29 sub exposures at 4-minutes per sub, ISO400 and f#4 were the parameters – below is the result 🙂

The Altair region in Aquila

I managed to get some imaging done a few nights ago.  Clear sky and no Moon 🙂  Used the south dome with the Canon 5D MkII and the Canon 200mm prime lens piggy-backed on the C11.  Captured the main stars of Aquila, Altair the bright one in the middle, Tarazed above it with the associated dark nebula Barnard’s “E”, and below Altair we have Alshain.  And all this with a stunning Milky Way background.

Amazing light panel for flats

A friend on one of the astronomy forums asked me if one of these would be any good for taking flats.

Any good??  They are utterly superb!!!!!!!!  AND they are CHEAP!!!!!!!!!  AND if you have a large aperture scope they are also available in A3 or A2 size as well (ALSO CHEAP!!!!!!!!!!!).

I don’t think these guys realise (yet) that there is a market out there for their product that almost certainly exceeds the market for light boxes for drawing 🙂 🙂

North America and Pelican nebulae

Using the Canon 200mm prime lens at f#4.5 and the M25C 6-Megapixel one shot colour CCD.  Only 6 x 15-minute subs for this one, clearly I need to get a LOT more data on this when it comes round again next year.  I have now moved the 200mm lens onto the top plate of the mini-WASP array and have fitted one of the 10-Megapixel M26C cameras to the back.  Just need to get the chip flattened to the lens and then I’ll be ready for the winter goodies – weather permitting.