Managed to get this winter’s first shots of M42 last night with my Canon 1100D/Nexstar 4SE OTA/HEQ5 combo. Clouds and poor alignment meant I only got 36 decent shots of 10s at ISO6400 at prime focus. Stacking was done in DeepSkyStacker with post-processing in StarTools.
Just tried out my new 1100D at prime focus thru my 4SE’s optical port in alt-az mode. I captured 90 frames (each 20s x ISO6400) using Canon EOS Utilities and then used AstroKam to filter them down to 56 good frames. DeepSkyStacker did its stacking magic and then Star Tools brought out the detail and colors.
Click on the image to see the original or click this link to see a zoomable version.
Update: I actually captured in 3 batches to give a total of 114 good light frames. Below is the new result and it looks like the extra frames give more detail in the fainter regions.
Again, here is a zoomable version.
This was taken with my Canon A810 looking thru my Nexstar 4SE in alt-az mode. Stacked in DeepSkyStacker and processed in Star Tools then Gimp.
M42 in Orion – Click for full size image
Here is my latest AstroKam shot of M42 in Orion taken with my £50 Canon A810 mounted on my Nexstar 4SE in alt-az mode. AstroKam automatically slewed to M42 during an all-night survey and spent 60 minutes shooting lights, darks and offsets. The best 43 lights were selected using AstroKam’s Sort module and stacked in DeepSkyStacker and processed in the beta version of Star Tools.
M42
UPDATE: Ivo of Star Tools showed me how to process my FITS files and here is his take on my M42 below. He used Star Tools’s Repair module to turn my arrowhead stars into points – not bad for an alt-az mount.
M42 rework by Ivo of Star Tools
I just tried out my new 1100D with a Canon 75-300 zoom on some deep sky objects. The camera was mounted on a Nexstar 4SE mount in alt-az mode aligned using 1 star with no guiding. My location is in a heavily light polluted city. Capture was by the Canon EOS utility program which captured around 30 shots at 30 seconds and 1600 ISO for each object. Stacking was done in DeepSkyStacker and post processing in Star Tools.
Still getting the hang of the software but I am pretty pleased with my first efforts at deep sky. I am still trying to figure why the stars are little triangles – vibration or lens distortion? Click on any image to view the original frame.
M42
Another shot of M37 taken with a Canon A810 and Nexstar 4SE (alt-az). Stacked in DeepSkyStacker and processed in Star Tools.
AstroKam was used in a 2 hour capture session using my Canon A810 mounted on my Nexstar 4SE in alt-az mode.
I used AstroKam’s new Sort routine to pick out the best captures which were stacked in DeepSkyStacker. Star Tools then brought out the details and colors to produce this image. Pretty good for a £50 camera?
Here is my latest capture using AstroKam with my Canon A810 looking thru the eyepiece of my Nexstar 4SE in alt-az mode. Stacking in Deep Sky Stacker and processing in Star Tools.
The sky was patchy so I only got 11x 10s lights, 2 darks and 2 biases.
