Some recent pics

[Big Dipper]

My stupidity is costing me a fortune! I discovered that a lens I had accidentally dropped a few weeks ago had buckled and that I could no longer thread filters onto it. More importantly the 'zoom' part of it had jammed as well. Luckily I took possession of a cheap replacement today with the same specs (75-300mm) but a slightly faster f ratio which hopefully I can put to good use soon!

But last Friday was the killer. While waiting for the skies to clear I hit upon the idea that I should shorten my new Astronomiser lead which allows me to connect my camera to a 12V cigarette outlet. I made the various snips & wired the two ends of the shortened cable together.

Then I switched the camera on.

Within seconds smoke began to appear from the battery compartment!

A quick change of underwear later I realised that I must have got the polarity wrong. Although the lead was fried, it could have been far worse as my modded camera still worked fine when I put a conventional battery in it and worked perfectly for several hours last night (new Astronomiser lead arrives tomorrow).

As the saying goes........................

IF IT AIN'T BROKE, DON'T FIX IT!
Anyway, a couple of shots from this last week. Hope they don't look too gross!


M45 with 135mm lens on my AstroTrac & IDAS filter


IC1318 Butterfly nebula region (same set up but with a Kenko Halpha filter. Image processed in B/W & then changed to a false colour version using Noel Carboni's astro tools


NGC 1499 the California nebula (same process as for the Butterfly nebula)

[John9929]

Lovely images Andy, that one of the Pleiades is superb, great detail in the Butterfly as well. What lenght of exposure are you using for those etc?

[Big Dipper]

Forgot to say - sorry John. I tend to go 4-5 minutes. Any longer & even with a filter I find the skyfog build up to be counter productive. The AstroTrac could certainly go far longer - especially with a mere 135mm focal length lens.

Thanks for the kind words BTW. 

[davegrennan]

Very nice shots ineed Andy.  Some lovely detail in there.   Noel Carboni's tools are just great.

No need to go anylonger than 4-5 minutes anyway.  One thing I've learned is that signal/noise is far more related to the total exposure time rather than individual subframes.  Are these just single frames or stacked?

[martinastro]

Those are great Andy. M45 looks fantastic at that image scale 

[brianb]

Great photos!

Within seconds smoke began to appear from the battery compartment!

Yikes!

People do tend to forget that 12V delivered from a lead acid or gel battery is dangerous - the voltage might not hurt you but the battery can deliver scores or hundreds of amps, that's a lot of power. Do make sure that everything is fitted with a reasonable value fuse. And try to get the polarity right!

[jgs001]

I've said it before, but great set of shots Andy

[Big Dipper]

Thanks all for the comments.

Dave they are stacks. Thanks to John (jgs001) I have recently been introduced to the remote timer which can be programmed to take exposures and number of shots at settings inputted by myself. This allows me more time to scan the heavens with my binoculars than having to keep an eye on the clock (but it also makes me feel kinda redundant, too). 

Brian considering the number of battery operated toys I used to break at Christmas as a kid trying to 'improve' them, you'd think I would have leaned my lesson by the ripe old age of 45! My new Astronomiser lead (which should arrive today) will be left totally untampered with - you can be assured of that! 

[Carl O Beirnes]

Hi Andy,

 I just saw these images now what a great set of images there is some amount of detail in them and very well processed.

Carl

[Gary Clarke]

Great shots Andy, keep up the good work. I hope a new pair of underpants did not cost so much, after that scare.