New Mount New Guiding Optics and a Test Shot of the Horsehead Nebula - Adam Lundie - Eatons Hill Observatory

New Mount, New Guiding Optics, and a Test Shot of the Horsehead Nebula

27-Feb-2016
New Mount, New Guiding Optics, and a Test Shot of the Horsehead Nebula thumbnail
New Mount, New Guiding Optics, and a Test Shot of the Horsehead Nebula
After switching from a Celestron CGEM DX to a Skywatcher EQ8 Pro, and from off-axis guiding to on-axis guiding I am very happy with the results. This is a 25 minute test shot of the Horsehead Nebula.

Image:

  • 5x 300s Ha bin3x3 + 10x flat + 50x dark + 120x bias

Total exposure time: 25 minutes.

Hardware:

  • Celestron EdgeHD 1100
  • Skywatcher EQ8 Pro Mount
  • Celestron 0.7x EdgeHD focal reducer
  • QSI 683-ws Camera @ -15°C
  • Astronomik Type 2c LRGB filters
  • Astronomik Ha 6nm filter
  • Orion StarShoot Autoguider
  • Innovations Foresight On Axis Guider
  • Starlight Xpress Adaptive Optics

Location:

  • Orange zone in Brisbane, Australia. (Bortle 7)

Software:

  • Captured with AstroArt 6
  • Guiding with PHD2 + PHD_Dither
  • Aladin 8.0: Planning & camera alignment.
  • CCDInspector: Image analysis & rejection
  • CCDStack 2+: Calibrate, align, normalize, stack, curves.
  • Photoshop CC: Reduce noise, high pass filter, contrast, false color.

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