2 hours and 40 minutes of the Deer Lick

Just for comparisons sake, I am posting the final results of nearly 2 hours and 40 minutes of integrated imaging time. It is a composite of all the images I have gotten of it so far with the SBIG. I added about 8 ten minute subs from tonight. The arms are still a little fuzzy, but the galaxy is starting to really stand out. Can't hardly tell it was shot through a 6 inch scope, and not something bigger.

56 Minutes More Minutes of The Deer Lick Group

As another test of my new CCD camera. I turned it once again to NGC 7331. This galaxy is proving to be a very tough target. I shot 8 six minute integrations and added it to what I shot the other night for a total of 56 minutes. All through the SC6 at F6.3 using the SBIG ST7. The core turned out OK, but the arms are still really faint. It needs a lot more integration time. I guess I will have to try again.

First Images From New Camera

This image of M1 "The Crab Nebula" was shot with my new SBIG ST7 CCD camera. I recently sold my largest scope to buy this and enter the world of self-guided CCD's. However, I still haven't gotten all the guide bugs worked out, and for the time being, I am still guiding with a separate camera - my DSI Pro.

This camera works a little different I am figuring out. Most of my other camera's like a lot of stacked medium to short exposures to keep the noise level low. This camera seems to do best with a few stacked long exposures, the longer the better.

Anyway, this image is the result of median stacking 7 three minute images.

M77 with the 6 inch scope

Here is an image of Messier 77, a strange galaxy with an Active Galactic Nucleus. It is basically considered my most astronomers to be a sort of mini-quasar. It is suspected that it's nucleus contains a very large and active black hole.

I took this image with my Orion DSCI. It is a composite of 17 two minute images, shot guided through my 6" sct at F6.3.

Another Look at the Deer Lick

I took another image of NGC 7331, the Deer Lick Galaxy. I used my Canon DSLR and the little 6" sct. It could use some more integration time, but I got the main part of it. This image was shot guided, and is a composite of about 8 five minute integrations at ISO 1600.

There seems to be some vignetting in the small image that does not show so bad in the full sized image. The SC6 seems to be a bit harder to image with using a DSLR than I care for. I may not use it much for this anymore. Vignetting and spherical errors seem to be the main issues.

Look! It's the Moon...

Bet you didn't know the Moon has colors? Look closely at this image. I shot it with my Canon 300D and my C6 sct.