From my Backyard

[Mark G]

Hi all I figuired I'd let you all drool over Tom's images before I posted mine. From the other night. We had a good time. Paul D, Tom H, Rob C, Bruce D, and a niehbor had a good time observing. I was busy drift aligning, and playing with my imaging set up. Tom also assisted me. TY so much Tom. Paul & Rob were busy looking at DSO's in Pauls 10" Parks Dob. We had decent skies, cooler temps, and a few bugs to deal with. Not many clouds rollled by but more then a few meteors blazed by and one -1 mag Iridium Flare. All and all a good night under the stars with good friends.

M27



I used my LXD750 (unguided), my Canon 350D (un-modified) and my 4" f/7 ED refractor. AT field flattener, BAADER Semi APO filter.
7, 1 minute exposures, 1, 1 minute dark frame at ISO 800. no flats, or cropping. stacked with Deep Sky Stacker Freeware. played with curves & levels in PS and passed through NEAT image freeware to post it on the BB.

Focus was almost there. This image looks decent if you shrink it down a lot.

[Rotorhead]

Welcome back to the 'Studio' Mark! It's been a while since you posted an image, and it looks like you will be posting many more with this refined setup. Very nice.

Good shot of a favorite subject. It's 'Apple Core' time, it must be summer! How many other names does the Dumbbell have? And a nice central star, too! In fact, it seems that you have captured the ragged outer envelope of the nebula at the top and bottom ends of this shot. Sure looks like it to me.

[Bruce D]

I agree Bob, Mark has a winner here. I always love seeing nice color captured. Nice star field too. The extra effort on the drift alignment clearly paid off Mark, nice tracking and the field flattener works great too I see. Thanks for posting!

[Dan S]

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[NGC7000]

Mark, you cheeky devil. I had no idea you were getting some nice images that night. Yes, the focusing. Once that issue is conquered, you will have some great material here. I have found that the addition of a filter ( I use the IDAS) makes nice pinpoint stars with the DSLR that I do not get withput it. Also, I think next time we get together, I'll bring along the stilletto focuser and see what it does for you.

Tom

[James T Kirk]

Good going Mark...focus is slightly off...but not to bad ,you need a STI focuser.

[BobSikes]

One of the nice things about getting old, is your eyesight begins to fail. I think your focusing is tack sharp. And like BobM said, it must be summer! Can't wait to see the dumbell, and all it's friends, in the dark skies of Stellafane.

BobS

[Mark G]

Thanks guys. Tom I'd love to try your STI. Lets hope my eyes are young enough to make it work for me.