M33 - Triangulum Galaxy

7 10 Minute images shot on 10/16/12 resulting in 1h10m exposure time through my Celestron Edge HD1100 at native F/10. This target is too large to fit the camera but you do get more detail this way. A worthwhile tradeoff in this case I think. Exposure time was short because the trees got in the way but sometimes you have to work with what you've got. Considering how this looks I think it's worthwhile doing this again when skies allow.

The image below is about half scale click on it to get the full 1:1 image.

(click for 1:1 version)

Cocoon Nebula, IC 5146

9 10 Minute images resulting in 2h10m exposure time through my Celestron Edge HD1100 at native F/10. I again had trouble keeping the guiding locked on the rather bright guide star. I really need to get to the bottom of this. It appears though after analysis of the guide log that a couple of hours into the run some clouds moved in and obscured the guide star. Not much can be done about that.

The image below is about half scale click on it to get the full 1:1 image.

(click for 1:1 version)

I shot a 30 minute clip of Jupiter and Venus setting together (in conjunction) over the trees in our front yard. To make it palatable I first sped it up 10x (the maximum allowed by VideoStudio and then again 3x as I put the titles and music over it. The camera was a Panasonic HDC-SD60 camera clamped to a lawn chair.

Arp 316 and Hickson 44

11 15 Minute images resulting in 2h45m exposure time through my Celestron Edge HD1100 at native F/10. Due to guiding problems I had to discard more than half my subs so the total exposure time is very limited. I think the scene is very interesting so I may redo it at some point. Lots of fuzzy galaxy action besides the main characters. Arp 316 is made up of NGC 3187, NGC 3190 and NGC 3194. Hickson 44 includes the same 3 but adds NGC 3185. You'll notice a large donut shaped dust-mote (shadow). I did not take flats that night and also did not blow compressed 'air' over the IDAS LPS filter that covers my CCD. Two big mistakes! Luckily the image doesn't suffer terribly for it and I decided to publish anyway because the galaxies look pretty good.

The image below is about half scale click on it to get the full 1:1 image.

(click for 1:1 version)