On December 26th we were invited to christmas dinner at my sisters place. I brought the Vixen Polarie, the Takahashi FS-60CB and the Nikon D750 to do some astrophotgraphy during the evening.
The image above records some faint nebulosity across central Orion. From the horsehead nebula B33 silhouetted against IC434 to the flame nebula NGC 2024. In the upper left, the M78 nebula with its surrounding NGC objects is also visible. In the corner a hint of Barnards loops is discernible
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Yesterday afternoon I decided to do some simple astrophotography high up in the mountains. I chose the Cavalljoch as the view to the south is unobstructed. My backpack was way too heavy, but somehow I managed to trek from Schattenlagant to the Cavalljoch. The night was the darkest night I ever experienced. M13 was clearly visible with indirect vision with the unaided eye. Read More
In preparation for an upcoming trip I am doing some equipment tests to prepare for the opportunity to observe from a dark sky.
It turns out even with the very rough polar alignment that is possible with the built-in peephole of the Polaire tracking mount 30 second exposures are possible with 180mm focal length on an APS-C camera:
3 x 30s – f/4 – ISO 1600, no darks, no flats, stacked with DeepSky Stacker, Nikon AF Nikkor 180mm f/2.8, Nikon D7000
This is the ful frame:
detail of the image above: Read More