MadMan's Astrophotography Site

MadMan's Astronomy and Astrophotography Pages - Photos of the Week

20 months and counting
since I bought my first
telescope and took my
Mike

LINK TO MY CHEAP,
HOME MADE LASER
CCD COLLIMATOR
BUILD....

A very bad month for weather and astronomy, but I did manage to get a few narrowband images done and buy new equipment (specifically the Canon 60Da DSLR and the EF 70-200 L
series lens). I also found I had to adjust the anti-blooming pot on the circuit board inside my SXVR-H694 camera - something I feel a user shouldn't have to do - but at least with the SX
equipment, it is relatively easy.
.

Celestron Focal Reducer for the
C11" Edge HD SCT Telescope: No

Photos of The Week - July, 2012
Tests: AstroTrac portable system, Canon 60Da, Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 L lens, Gerd Neumann's CTU,
Celestron Focal Reducer for the C11" Edge HD.

Imaging and Processing: Michael DeMita

Gerd Neuman CTU
for EOS lens
attachment to my SX
CCD Cameras.

PGR Flea 3 video camera:
No results due to weather.

Canon EF
70-200mm f/4L
USM lens.

Left: Crescent Nebula imaged over 7 hours with 2 cameras
- H18 and H694. Narrowband. Hubble Palette.
Registration - Registar 1.0.

Right: Omega (Swan) Nebula. Initial test imaging - 3 hours
using H694 camera. Both images were done in the Takahashi
FSQ-106 EDXiii @ f3.7 (reduced)

Final iterations of the Tulip and Trifid Nebulas.

August Preview: New test bed platform. Losmandy G-11 mount with Gemini 2 controller and a 'Six Shooter' side-by-side setup. 6

Canon 60Da DSLR Astronomy Camera.

Tested with:

and

The below images of Gamma Cygnus, the Veil Nebula complex and the Heart Nebula were done with a mix of two cameras - the H694 was used to capture the Ha (and Oiii in the case of the Veil Nebula) portion
at 200mm FL and the M25C was used in the Tak at 370mm FL to image RGB wavelengths. Imaging was done simultaneously on the 'six-shooter' setup pictured above. Gamma Cyg was accomplished in 40
pretty good with only 2 hours of elapsed imaging but with effectively 4 hours of data being captured. Images were blended with Registar. The similar FOV's make these two cameras imaging simultaneously a
powerful HaRGB combination that can accomplish quite a bit in a short time. DSS, Registar, PixInsight, PS4 used for processing. Capture with Nebulosity. I call this "CCD-DP" for 'dual photography' ;)

Below on the left and center are an initial raw test stack of just a few 2 minute exposures and a cropped/processed version of same
using the new Canon 60Da on the AstroTrac mount with my older 24-105 mm Canon zoom lens. Lagoon and Trifid region were
captured during a very heavy LP night with near full moon in about 30 minutes. Omega and Eagle region (right) was about a 1 hour
24 minute exposure done on my G11 mount.