Deep Space
M42 - The Great Orion Nebula
The fuzzy patch just below the belt of Orion. Probably the most photographed object after the Sun and Moon. A hot star forming region fuelled by 4 young stars known as the trapezium that invariable burn out the centre of the image. It is located approximately 1300 Light Years Away and is 24 Light Years across. It is an Emission Nebula.
This is an old image, taken back in 2008. It comprised of 10 exposures, stacked and processed using Registax 4. AT the time, I was absolutely delighted with this photo, nice and sharp and clearly recognisable. Although it can't compete with the works of art produced by top astro-photographers, there is still something special about using a DSLR for Astronomy.
Camera was a Konica Minolta 7D DSLR Camera at 1600 ASA, the exposure time was 30 seconds per frame.
Telescope is my old, trusty Skywatcher 200mm F5 with the camera at Prime Focus..
Mount is a EQ5 Equatorial, Polar Aligned and driven in Right Ascension. Still going strong, now about 18 years old.
NGC2024 - The Flame Nebula
This nebula sits just to the east of the left hand star in Orion's Belt, Alnitak. It is an Emission Nebula about 1350 light years away.
North (up) is to the Right
Equipment
Telescope: SVBony ED80mm F7
Mount: EQ5, Polar Aligned with RA Drive
Camera: Starlight Xpress H694
Camera Settings (SharpCap 4)
Capture Area=1600x1200
Binning=2x2
Colour Space=MONO16
Exposure=30.000s
Cooler=On
Temperature=-10.3000001907349
Black Level=0
Digital Gain=17.3686507275937
TimeStamp=2024-03-06T20:17:02.8275920Z
Duration=1037.299s
FrameCount=32