I went outside with a bright Moon. My intention was to make some widefield images of the moon with the Plejads M45 which were covered by the Moon in the afternoon. But M45 was already too far outside the field. So I decided to give M42 and Saturn a try.
Last Update: 15 March 2006
M42 Experiment with 2 Minutes and Single Image
Before M42 disappeared behind the roof of the house, I took this image. Background was very bright, as you can see in the small image below.
NIKON D70 at ISO1600
Nighthawk Refractor 80/480mm (f6) on GP running unguided
05 March 2006 1906 UT 122s Exposure Time with internal dark subtraction.
Single image treated with ImagesPlus, Iris and Neat Image
Here is the "Original Image" before treatment with only size reduced ...
Moon with Stars around
The Plejads M45 are just about outside the field to the right. The faintest stars are about 9 Mag on this image.
NIKON D70 at ISO200
Nighthawk Refractor 80/480mm (f6) on GP running unguided
05 March 2006 1932 UT 8s Exposure Time with internal dark subtraction.
Single image treated with ImagesPlus, Iris and Neat Image
Saturn Widefield
M44 was just outside the field to the left. I was not aware that it was so close.
NIKON D70 at ISO1600
Nighthawk Refractor 80/480mm (f6) on GP running unguided
05 March 2006 1926 UT 121s Exposure Time with internal dark subtraction.
Single image treated with ImagesPlus, Iris and Neat Image
Some comments from the mailgroups
Very nice Chris. Good to see some D70 Stuff. One of the things I like about the Nighthawk is its wide flat field. It also takes a .63 focal reducer well for an even wider FOV. http://www.barrie-tao.com/astro_photo.html Ciao...Barry
Nice images indeede! I hope to get into buisness with my Nighthawk soon :D About the flat field... It looks like the stars in the corners are not exactly round. I thought the Nighthawk could fill a full 35mm without this sort of thing? Søren
Maybe the flat field varies between different copies of this scope. I did a lot of imaging with my Nighthawk, and I was quite fond of it. I liked the general build quality, and the nice widefield views. But my version of the scope had some significant star elongations at the edges. That, along with the CA, eventually moved me over to the ED80. Both the CA and edge problems are quite evident in this view of the Double Cluster taken with the Nighthawk: http://childers.smugmug.com/gallery/414744/1/43585919/Large Steve
Very, very nice, Christoph. Tom
Chris, very nice images, thanks for sharing them. Good detail on the dark side of the moon. My favorite is the "Maltese Cross" in the Saturn picture. David E
Hi Christoph, Thanks for sharing your photos. I also have a Nighthawk, although I am strictly a visual user at this time. I enjoy hearing what other Nighthawk users are doing and look forward to seeing more from you and your 'Hawk. Br, Walt K.
Christoph, Those are some nice images! Good work! -Matt Thomas
Moin Christoph, nicht übel, was du aus der Einzelaufnahme rausgeholt hast. Erstaunlich auch, dass sich die Blausäume kaum bemerkbar machen. Scheintst 'nen guten Achromaten erwischt zu haben. Vermutlich hatten dir die Wolkenlücken kaum Zeit für kurz belichtete Aufnahmen gelassen, dann hättest du auch den Kern nicht so ausgebrannt darstellen müssen?! Aber auch so ist deine Aufnahme sehr schön geworden. CS...Gerald
Hallo, ist doch super geworden. 2 min sind für unser Wetter schon sehr lang... Wink Smile Smile CS und viele Grüße Thomas