Astronomy

Observing Log for

Session Details


Tillicoultry

56.157, -3.749

50m

Notes

An incredibly cold and calm night. Some light haze from time to time. Transparency not great. Milky Way visible.

Observations

The Great Orion Nebula

I spent most of the evening gathering images of the Great Orion Nebula. This was my first attempt at this target with the Canon 6D. I found 20s exposures at ISO1600 gave promising results although I did experiment with shorter exposures and lower ISO to gather additional data to bring out detail in the brighter regions. I didn't do a great job of capturing darks.

The Great Orion Nebula

34 x 20s exposures at ISO1600.
Vixen ED80sf telescope on EQ5 mount. Unguided.
Captured with AstroDSLR.
Aligned stacked and processed in SiriL
Final corrections in Pixelmator Pro.

Winter Milky Way Open Clusters

Whilst imaging the Orion Nebula I used my binoculars to scan along the winter Milky Way, taking in several of the more distinctive open star clusters along the way. I started with M35 in Gemini, moved up to the three amigos in Auriga (M36, M37 and M37) before continuing up via the Double Cluster to the Cassiopeia region.

The Pleiades

I finally swept over to the Pleiades - always an excellent view in binoculars. The cluster sits nicely in the field of view with crisp stars.

Images

M42 - The Orion Nebula

Image of M42 - The Orion Nebula

View full image details