I was able to get an hour of M16 tonight, and it was earlier in the night,
so the dew/temperature (causing focus shift) wasn't as bad. It's still quite a strange
object from a post-processing standpoint -- large variations in brightness, trying to bring out
nebulosity and dark dust lanes all at once. I think that I'll have a field day with this data
once I have some more processing mojo under my belt.
Side note: I hadn't moved the camera between nights, so I figured I might be able to use the
11 frames from last night to extend the integration time a bit. No dice. The two shots were on
opposite sides of a meridian flip, so they were 180° rotated relative to each other, and the camera
is not quite orthogonal with the RA/Dec axes, so it's not *exactly* 180°, ...
If I get my hands on some software that can do some serious de-rotation at the same time as stacking, I may be golden. Store it away.
Up way too late in early June, decided to try out some of the summer nebulae.
Only picked up 11 frames before loss of guidestar behind the roof of the observatory.
Not bad, though.
Click here for detail of the Pillars of Creation.
M16, The Eagle Nebula, Emission Nebula in Serpens
Shot while up in Shingletown, CA during July 2005 and finally(!) processed and uploaded in August 2006...
The Eagle Nebula in Serpens, M16
Film: E200
Camera: K-1000
Lens: ED80 (600mm f/7.5), prime focus
Guiding: ST-4
Exposure: 15min
Date: September 9, 2004