clear sky chart

Job 9:9

Job 9:9-10
9 He is the Maker of the Bear and Orion,
the Pleiades and the constellations of the south.
10 He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed,
miracles that cannot be counted.
NIV

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

First Attempt at a Deep Sky Object - M31

My first attempt at a deep sky object, and it was filled with problems.  For one thing, the batteries running my clock drive were getting weak, and it began slowing down as I progressed.  What started with 20 frames ended up being only 3.  Deep sky stacker would only stack 3 out of 5 frames that I picked out as being "decent".  There was too much blur in the stars apparently.  The light frames were taken using an iso of 800, and exposures were 90 seconds in length.

This image was taken with a Canon Rebel T3 using a 300mm telephoto lens.  I took a series of light frames (5) after I found vignetting in the image.  I took no darks.

The clock drive on my dobsonian had died last night, so I mounted the camera piggyback on my refractor, as it's clock drive is working (if it has fresh batteries installed).  The mount is unguided, but I figured with the relatively low magnification of a 300mm lens, the unguided mount should be acceptable.

There is a dark dust lane clearly visible and M110 is also visible, as well as M32, but its difficult to tell if M32 is really a companion in this image.  I really wish I was able to take the 20 useable frames like I wanted.  However, I am happy with this image as my very first deep sky object.  It gives me something to improve upon.

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