Anthony's Astrophotography

Archive for the ‘Clusters’ Category

Hi Everyone,

As per my usual journey for the new moon I made my way out to Blackbutt to see what I could collect from the summer time skies.

This trip I had taken some leave from work to allow me the time to stay for two nights. I am glad I did as this gives me that bit of extra time to image as I didn’t need to do a full set up on the second evening. Rob again joined me for the migration and was able to test out his new Alt-Az EQ6 mount and play with his new camera. A little more on that later.

As per my new strategy of imaging one target per evening I decided on Pleiades on the evening of the 1^st Dec and the Christmas Tree Cluster on the 2^nd Dec.

Pleiades:

• 40 * 5 minute subs (~3.3 Hours in total) @ ISO 400.
• 0 Dark frames (I did not get a chance to capture these during my time out in the field).
• 40 * Bias Frames
• 40 * Flat Frames

The equipment used was:

• EQ8 Mount
• William Optics Megrez 90 mm scope
• Baader UV/IR Filter
• Central DS 600D Camera (With Backyard EOS)
• Guiding with a William Optics ZenithStar 70mm APO and
• LodeStar Guider Camera.

Christmas Tree Cluster:

• 19 * 10 minute subs (~3.1 Hours in total) @ ISO 800.
• 0 Dark frames (I did not get a chance to capture these during my time out in the field).
• 40 * Bias Frames
• 40 * Flat Frames

The equipment used was:

• EQ8 Mount
• GSO RC8 Scope
• Baader UV/IR Filter
• Central DS 600D Camera (With Backyard EOS)
• Guiding with a William Optics ZenithStar 70mm APO and
• LodeStar Guider Camera.

The processed images are below, I hope you like them.

A quick review of the Alt-Az EQ6, this is a great little mount and performed really well for Rob, from my first experience of seeing one in action and using one I would highly recommend these mounts as they are a great price point for the equipment you get.

I wish I could say the same for my EQ8 mount, I did have some further issues with this and will post about them separately when I get a chance.

Cheers

Anthony