Stargazing First is the Blue Snowball , a planetary nebula.

[russ_watters]

First is the "Blue Snowball", a planetary nebula.

I took three pictures tonight.

First is the "Blue Snowball", a planetary nebula. This one is really bright and 30 second exposures are all that is really needed. The only stretching that was done was to cut off the black level at the bottom.

Next is the Crab Nebula. Decent for my first attempt, with 30 and 45 second sub-exposures. There is a ton of subtle detail to bring out with much longer exposures.

Last is Saturn. I've taken a bunch, and frankly, I've been a little disappointed so far. I'm matching, but have not yet exceeded the quality I got from my older, much smaller telescope. I think it is mostly due to the atmospheric turbulence around here.

I've gotten the hardware I need to start autoguiding, so I should be able to start figuring that out soon (tomorrow...?) and up the quality of my another step.

 

[russ_watters]

I've gotten the hardware I need to start autoguiding, so I should be able to start figuring that out soon (tomorrow...?) and up the quality of my another step.

Well, it took an extra month, but here's my first autoguided pic. It's 15x2 minute red subs 15x3 minute blue and about 30x3 minute green subs. I intended to go to bed while shooting luminance frames, but fell asleep on the couch while it was shooting the greens.

I've got a very dirty CCD, which is surprising since I keep the camera in a zip-lock bag when not using it, but I cleaned it tonight and it looks better. Regardless, I've uncovered a bunch of learning curve issues to deal with. Still, it's a pretty good result. Compare it to my image in post 125: https://www.physicsforums.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=7011&d=1148840740

 

[russ_watters]

I finally got a good night of seeing for imaging Saturn. Attached is the result - by far my best yet.

I'd actually been starting to wonder if I was doing something wrong or if there was something wrong with my scope, but nope - it looks like it is all about the seeing where I live. I did take more exposures than usual (1000 vs about 3000) and I did the color correction in Registax and I think it looks more natural than in some of my others.

This is about 500 of 1000, stacked in Registax 4, single point alignment (can't seem to get multipoint to work...), .25sec exposures, 5x powermate, bmp format, taken with my DSI-Color.

I'm not finished processing yet, but this is probably 95% of what I'll get out of it (at 3:00 in the morning...). I also took a few avis with my QuickCam VC, so we'll see if they yield anything...

Btw, I have finally updated my website...

 

[turbo]

Very nice, Russ!