Search
Latest news
December: Test shots with new scopes/mounts
Dec 21: TMB 80/480 Arrives!
Dec 3: AP1200 Arrives!
Nov 30: TMB 152/1200 Arrives!
Links:
IC 405 (Flaming Star Nebula)
| |
| Mouse-over to see annotations. (Requires Javascript) Click to see high-res version. |
Image Details:
- Camera: Mofidied Canon Rebel XT (350D): Hutech Type I Filter Replacement
- Mount: Celestron AS-GT
- Scope: Celestron C8-N (8" f/5 Newtonian)
- Configuration: Prime Focus
- Additional Optics: Celestron/Baader Multi Purpose Coma Corrector (MPCC)
- Filter: None
- Effective Focal Length: 1000mm
- Effective Focal Ratio: f/5
- Exposure: 38 x 4min @ ISO 400
- Total Exposure: 2hrs, 32min
-
- Date: 1/4/2006 10:44:54 PM PST (start)
- Location: Saratoga, CA, USA
- Acquisition: DSLRfocus
- Focus: DSLRFocus
- Dithering: GADFly 1.0.5
- Guiding: GuideDog via Philips ToUcam Pro II (840k) through Orion ST80 w/ Celestron 2x "Kit" Barlow
Processing:
- IRIS: Dark subtraction, registration, gradient removal
- JimP: Flat field, Kappa-Sigma Stacking, White balance, ASINH stretching
- Photoshop: Levels, cropping, JPG conversion
Image Description:
This is IC 405, aka the Flaming Star Nebula, in the constellation of Auriga. This was shot on a night of absolutely horrible transparency. To see how bad it was, check out this animation, which shows each of the 38 exposure played back-to-back as a movie. Notice how many of the shots were wiped out by clouds. Surprisingly, stacking all 38 of the images produced a better result than selecting the best images and stacking only them. Perhaps the Kappa-Sigma operation is automatically rejecting "bad" data. A higher-resolution image is also available. North is up.
