M27 - Dumbbell Nebula

With a relatively clear sky last night, I set out to image M27.  By the time I had set up my equipment and performed a solid polar alignment, more cloud had rolled in and the moon was starting to become factor, but I managed to capture 6 light frames at ISO800, for a total exposure time of 9 minutes.

The Dumbbell Nebula (also known as Apple Core Nebula) is a planetary nebula in the constellation Vulpecula, at a distance of about 1,360 light years.

Quite happy with the result, given the relatively poor seeing conditions.  I'll definitely try this again once conditions improve, possibly extending the exposures slightly.

M51 - Whirlpool Galaxy

After a couple of weeks of cloud, last Thursday saw a clear sky during the early evening so I thought I'd set up my gear and see if I could image M51.  It's not the easiest target for my scope, as it's quite small and I have a relatively short focal length.

I took 20x90s lights, 5x90s darks all at ISO1600.  Unfortunately I was only able to use 4 of the lights, as the cloud cover had rendered most of the images without detail.

M51, the "Whirlpool Galaxy" is an interacting spiral galaxy in the constellation Canes Venatici

I'm really chuffed with this one.  I'm hopeful that with a clearer sky and more data, I can reduce the noise in the image and maybe bring out some more of the colour too.

M13 - Great Globular Cluster in Hercules

This was first light for my TS80, on the longest day of the year!  A full moon and high cloud didn't help either, but I manage to capture 5 lights and a set of darks to create the image below.

M13 - Full Frame

M13 - Crop

Despite spending a while trying to improve focus, the result looks a little soft.  I think the high cloud was a factor with this however, so I'm not getting downhearted!  There's some elongation of stars towards the edge of the full frame as I don't have a field flattener.

Read more about M13 and Globular Clusters over at Wikipedia.

Old scope review - Meade ETX80 AT BB

A little while ago I acquired a used ETX80 (the "backpack observatory" edition) for less than £200.  It was an impulse purchase with no real objective in mind.  I guess I still missed my LX200 and wanted a low-cost substitute :)

Now, I read a lot of bad things about these scopes.  The GOTO doesn't work properly, the focusser is poor, the built-in barlow is useless etc etc.

Maybe the bad press has had the effect of flooring my expectations, but my ownership has been hassle-free so far.  Maybe I was lucky but I don't seem to have any of the problems above.  Ok, so the barlow is poor, it's noisy and the slimmer tripod shipped with the Backpack edition isn't great.  But none of those points are issues for me.  The scope will sit quite happily on a garden table (or windowsill!) instead.



SPC900 & netbook were on hand so I thought I'd
take a stab at planetary imaging with my ETX..

  

.. but despite excellent tracking, a short-tube achro
is far from ideal for imaging Saturn!

Saturn through my old LX200
for comparison.  Much better!

I can perform a 1 or 2 star align within a couple of minutes (even on said windowsill!) which is sufficient to allow the GOTO to do its work.  It even managed to hold Saturn on the chip of my webcam for a couple of minutes, and that's with the built-in barlow engaged to achieve focus.  The supplied EP's and diagonal seem of better quality than the usual stuff shipped with new scopes too.

So that's my mini-review - to me it's a great grab 'n go which fits (in it's entirety!) into a little backpack and can be used to view a number of targets.  The hand control can also be used for slow-motion AltAz tracking for terrestrial targets, which is handy too.  I'll keep hold of it despite my efforts to set up an equatorial imaging platform.

Starfields

I wanted to try some basic starfield shots first of all, to get used to focussing with Backyard EOS and practice achieving good polar alignment.  Here are a couple of shots taken with my 400D with a 50mm prime lens on the HEQ5.  Exposures were 10x30seconds each at ISO 800.  Darks were also taken to reduce noise:

Deneb (the brighter star in the lower left) is the brightest star in the constellation Cygnus and one of the vertices of the Summer Triangle

Vega (α Lyr, α Lyrae, Alpha Lyrae) is the brightest star in the constellation Lyra, the fifth brightest star in the night sky and the second brightest star in the northern celestial hemisphere, after Arcturus.

Equipment so far

A few weeks later and I've made a few purchases :)

HEQ5 and TS80 F/6 refractor

Almost everything has been bought second hand from the UK Astronomy Buy and Sell to keep a lid on the costs!

My new imaging kit so far comprises of:

• Skywatcher HEQ5 Pro mount
• Teleskop Service 80mm F/6 Triplet refractor
• Maplins 12v 12Ah jumpstarter
• Canon EOS 400D DSLR camera (unmodded)
• Macbook Pro (for Backyard EOS and Deep Sky Stacker software)

I also have an ST80 with an ADM side-by-side bar but my aim is to get used to the basics of deep-sky imaging before I attempt long exposures with autoguiding.

Introduction

After dabbling with planetary imaging a few years ago, I've decided to invest a new imaging setup capable of deep-sky astrophotography.

With a little input from the helpful folks over at Stargazers Lounge, I've planned a few purchases!