After playing around for a while and a couple mis-starts, I finally got the new auto-guiding system to co-operate and talk to the HEQ5 and was looking for something to test it on. Earlier in the day I had seen a picture of the Triffid Nebula (M20) on one of the facebook forums and, as this was one of the targets I was keen to try, I decided to check where in the sky it was – it happened to be just coming into an elevation that was out of the worst of the light pollution (for midnight :)) so decided to give it a try. Capture details are :
10x300s subs @ iso800
10x300s darks @ iso800
Canon 70D with cheap Prostar CLS filter (definitely needs upgrading) controlled by BackYardEos
Skywatcher ED80 (f7.5)
HEQ5 pro
Guided with ASI120MC-S through ZWO 50mm guide-scope using PHD2
The guiding worked really well for a first serious attempt, all 10 frames were usuable ! By this stage it was now 2am so time to pack up and catch some zzzz’s, editing could wait till the Sunday !
After a slight sleep in, Sunday after all, it was time to attempt the editing. I am still very new to using the editing software (DeepSkyStacker and Photoshop) so the editing is pretty rough, especially for the first couple of edits. After a few pointers from the facebook forums, the final edit was done while following along with the Youtube tutorials by Doug German. I had watched these a couple months ago but it was definately worthwhile doing the refresher course – this last edit I am quite happy with even with the noise that is evident.
Will definately have to return to this target as the year progresses and it’s timing and positioning gets better – especially with the RC6.
