Colorado CJ
Well-Known Member
I finally had another chance to set up my Astrophotography rig last night and shoot a couple more photos. The weather wasn't ideal, but I haven't shot the night sky for a while and I was getting itchy.
The ground level winds were somewhat gusty and the upper atmosphere was very turbulent, so seeing wasn't very good. Because of that, guiding was at least double my resolving power, so the images didn't come out near as sharp as they normally would.
That's OK though. A night under the stars is still great, even with less than ideal conditions.
This first image is a set of galaxies known as the "Deer Lick Group". Not sure why it is named that, but that's what it shows in my planetarium. This is a set of very small galaxies. There are at least 7 individual galaxies in this image. The image is highly cropped since the galaxies are so small. That is another reason it is somewhat blurry.
I plan on shooting this another night when seeing is better.
I woke up at 4 am (I sleep outside on a cot when imaging since I don't want to leave a $4500.00 setup outside by itself) and seen that Orion was up. So I swung the scope over there and imaged for another hour. The same applies to this image, it should be a lot sharper, but seeing. This is a near full size image, just enough cropping to get rid of the bad edges from dithering.
This is a favorite of mine. Orion can be seen with the naked eye in a semi-dark location very easily. I plan on imaging this much longer once it rises earlier in the evening.
And here is my astrophotography setup for those interested.
The ground level winds were somewhat gusty and the upper atmosphere was very turbulent, so seeing wasn't very good. Because of that, guiding was at least double my resolving power, so the images didn't come out near as sharp as they normally would.
That's OK though. A night under the stars is still great, even with less than ideal conditions.
This first image is a set of galaxies known as the "Deer Lick Group". Not sure why it is named that, but that's what it shows in my planetarium. This is a set of very small galaxies. There are at least 7 individual galaxies in this image. The image is highly cropped since the galaxies are so small. That is another reason it is somewhat blurry.
I plan on shooting this another night when seeing is better.
I woke up at 4 am (I sleep outside on a cot when imaging since I don't want to leave a $4500.00 setup outside by itself) and seen that Orion was up. So I swung the scope over there and imaged for another hour. The same applies to this image, it should be a lot sharper, but seeing. This is a near full size image, just enough cropping to get rid of the bad edges from dithering.
This is a favorite of mine. Orion can be seen with the naked eye in a semi-dark location very easily. I plan on imaging this much longer once it rises earlier in the evening.
And here is my astrophotography setup for those interested.
