Blue Horsehead Nebula (11-Jun-2021)

[Bill Richards]

ASI2600MC-Pro
Sigma 150-600mm Lens @ 250mm
CEM40 mount
ASI120MM-Mini guide camera on ASI 30mm guide scope
Autoguiding with PHD2
60 x 240 sec Lights
Darks, Flats, and Dark Flats for calibration
Stacked and processed in PixInsight

 

[AlanLichty]

Very easy to see the outline that gives this nebula its name. Nice imaging.

 

[Ben Egbert]

Very nice image

 

[Jameel Hyder]

Neat. That is a lot of stars and pretty huge nebula.

 

[jarmor]

Looks great!

 

[JimFox]

Hey Bill, this looks super cool! Love the Blue Horsehead.

How does the combination of the ASI2600mc work with the 150-600mm? That is a combination I am considering.

 

[Bill Richards]

It worked better than I expected. The Sigma lens is nowhere near the quality of Canon "L" glass or a good triplet refractor, but the image turned out reasonably good, with not too much distortionn in the stars. There is still some flaring of star shapes in the corners, but at 250mm it was acceptable. Not sure if it would be at 600mm, but at that focal length I would be using my Esprit 100 anyway.

You have to get something like the Astromechanics lens adapter to mate it with your ZWO camera. I think ZWO makes one as well, but I heard the Astromechanics device is better built and I've had no problems with mine. The software-controlled focusing works well with NINA, too.

 

[Douglas Sherman]

That is one cool image, Bill.

 

[Mike Lewis]

Lovely! I have tried this a number of times and never managed to get any good results - not sure exactly why. Yours is perfectly captured and framed up for sure.

I have had 3 ZWO camera lens to astro camera adapters. The first 1 was loose, the 2nd one too tight to even mate a lens into. The third design I have now looks like it might work, but I have yet to try it, as my gear is running remotely so no good way to swap the OTA out without a lot of work and travel involved. I was thinking on getting the Astromechanics adapter before the last ZWO design came in - it is good to know you have had good luck with it. I may still go in that direction in the future, as it looks to be better built, plus having focus and aperture control is a big plus.

ML