Damselfly

Here's one I thought I'd lost. 20th of June 2008 but too good to lose straight away into the archive....


Click for larger image

M33 - Same data - New Method

Just been having a play with the M33 data that produced the post 9th October. Made some light flats using the same imaging setup and then combined with Deepskystacker.
The processing no longer required any gradient work so concentrated on producing better colour enhancing by shifting Photoshop into LAB mode. Here is a 100% crop of the same M33 stacked data.


Click for larger image

M33 (NGC 598) - Triangulum Galaxy

First image from new dark site in the North Yorkshire Moors National Park. Half moon was elevated to about 20° which didn't help so called it a night after a couple of hours.

Click for larger image

8x4.5mins, ISO800 at 300mm

Raws were too cooked so won't make that mistake again.

"There's probably someone in that galaxy with a camera takin a picture of our galaxy. Rockin" - Scott Preston 09:50hrs 09-10-2008

Grey Heron and .... ?

I'm guessing it's a Long Eared Owl based on its tail poking out below the branch and err its long ears.


Click for larger image


Hopefully this is my last outing with the Sigma 70-300mm APO because quite frankly the auto-focus on it sucks pole and the contrast isn't far behind.

American Nebula - again!

Another clear night for a short while and after much buggerng about with new ED80 I ended up going back to my Sigma APO instead. Windy conditions made my available sky limited so I opted for the American Nebula again. This time I took into account white balance to compensate for the Astronomik CLS filter.


Click for larger image

9x3mins, ISO800, 149mm, F4.6. Canon 450D + Astronomik CLS + Sigma APO 70-300mm.

Note for Will: Here are the links I mentioned. TIFF and Canon 450D RAW of one of the single unprocessed subs that went toward producing this image of the American Nebula. The cyan cast is caused by the Astronomik CLS filter.

14.56MB .CR2 version
70MB .TIFF version

Hope you have broadband!

Long Tailed Tit

Click for larger image

North American Nebula (NGC7000) - Emission nebula in the constellation Cygnus

Click for larger image


This second shot was taken the same evening whilst I was waiting for it go dark. This is the Andromeda galaxy rising above my conifers to the East. Was primarily just testing the tracking and alignment but it turned out to be not a bad result.


Click for larger image

Swan in flight

Click for larger image

Black Headed Gull

Click for larger image

The Dambusters

Click for larger image
Canada geese taken at Fairburn Ings.

M13 - Globular cluster in the Hercules constellation

First astro shot using the Astrotrac sidereal tracker. The tracking is spot on. Unfortunately the subs were taken during the final stages of twilight when the sun was only about 15 degrees under the horizon. Not to mention a waning gibbous moon had just risen. Considering the odds were stacked against me I was more than happy with the result.

For those of you who are interested in learning more about the Astrotrac you may want to follow this link to the Astrotrac Website.

There is also a user group hosted with Yahoo groups which is attended regularly by the Astrotrac designer and manufacturer Richard Taylor. Go to the Astrotrac User group.

Click for larger image

6 x 2.5min subs, Canon 450D, ISO1600, 300mm (Sigma APO)

1st Lunar photo with 450D

Click for larger image
Single hand held shot. This is a 100% crop at full camera resolution.

Canon 450D, Sigma 70-300mm APO at 300mm, f5.6 ISO500 1/400s