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A very transparent night, pity about the half moon rising at 10:30pm to spoil an otherwise good night. My Astronomik CLS filter is not as effective as an Ha filter at knocking out the moonlight, but it certainly helps. This image shows part of the NGC281 complex. This was more a test of guiding than anything else - and it demonstrates I've pinned down the flexure issues and they are not the limiting factor any more. Limiting factor is now the fact my LXD55 mount is fundamentally not designed for this sort of thing.
Total integration time was nearly 3 hours. It is amazing how much exposure time you have to rack up on even relatively bright emssion objects at this sort of image scale.
A seriously wet night. Looked like it had been raining on the scope by 2am. Still, the promised mist didn't develop. Now the nights grow cold, I will have to get my dew heaters wired up once more - the hairdrier had a big workout last night.
p>Captured in Artemiscapture. Calibrated in ImageViewCA. Aligned and Combined in Maxim. Finishing in photoshop.
This image was autoguided using my 400mm focal length refractor and my black and white SC1 webcam.
Current Imaging equipment configuration
Exposure Details :
Astronomik CLS MPCC 12x400s on 200mm @ F5 with ART285
Astronomik CLS MPCC 11x450s on 200mm @ F5 with ART285
Curdridge Observatory, Southampton,UK
