Photos from Last Night / This Morning (Moon, Stars, Nebulae, Galaxies)

astrostu · Nov 20, 2009

I really like my 7D. :hugs:

The moon set about 5:30, so I captured it early on through a 7-part mosaic through a 16" telescope. Each original photo was ISO 100, 1/4-sec (f/12 telescope), and made of 5 photos that were averaged together.

Six hours later, I returned with my 70-200mm f/2.8 lens and piggybacked it on an 18" telescope to use its tracking system. The first photo is of the Pleiades (M45) and has been binned 2x2. 5 shots, 3 minutes each, ISO 200, f/3.5, 177mm (but cropped), median-combined. You can see some of the nebulosity surrounding the stars, but I need darker skies to really bring it out.

The second photo is towards the middle of Orion and got its belt and sword region. Near zeta Ori (the left belt star) you can see the flame nebula and below it a hint of the horsehead nebula. The second sword star is actually the Orion Nebula (M42) with a dark dust lane separating it from M43, and above that you see three brighter stars with nebulosity around it forming the Running Man nebula. Same exposure as M45, 4x4 binning, 140 mm (but cropped width-wise).

Third focussed on just the zeta Ori region and is a single-shot, ISO 400, 200mm, f/3.5, 270-sec (4.5-minute) exposure and 2x2 binning. It's my favorite and it's my first definitive (though very faint and noisy) shot of the Horsehead Nebula.

Fourth we have the Andromeda Galaxy which was ISO 400, 3 shots at 3 minutes each, f/3.5, 200mm, median-combined, 6x6 binning. Andromeda was setting when I got this because it was an after-thought which is why I didn't work as hard on getting better signal-to-noise (hence the 3 shots only and ISO 400). Still, this is my first shot of it and I'm reasonably satisfied. You can also make out two satellite galaxies, M110 and M104 (I *think*, I could be wrong on those and they're just from memory).

Finally is the very faint M33 (Triangulum Galaxy), same settings as for Andromeda, 2x2 binning. It was also setting so I didn't care as much about putting in good time since it was getting COLD OUTSIDE!