Dave's Astrophotography

NGC 869 and NGC 884: the double open cluster in the constellation Perseus.

Shot 27 September 2008; Rock Springs Parking Lot, Mt. Tamalpais State Park; ISO 800, Exp 6x2m, f/5.2, Canon EOS 5D & Televue NP127is. Calibration, alignment, & stacking with Images Plus 3.0; other post-processing with Photoshop CS2.

Reshoot of the Andromeda Galaxy with flat frames. Also from a new dark sky location at Lake Sonoma Recreation Area

Shot 29 August 2008; Lake Sonoma, CA; ISO 800, Exp 9x5m, f/5.2, Canon EOS 5D & Televue NP127is.

These images are the first I’m really happy with. They’re the first I shot flat frames for and it makes all the difference.

This is NGC 7000, the North America Nebula, so called because it sort of resembles the continent. Cock your head to the left and you’ll start to see the resemblance--the dark “bay” in the upper-center-right is the Gulf of Mexico.

Shot 9-10 August 2008, ISO 800, Exp 9x5m, f/5.2, Canon EOS 5D & Televue NP127is, from Rock Springs Parking Lot, Mt. Tamalpais State Park.

NGC 6960, the “Western Veil” portion of the nebula. Reshoot of last week’s image with a higher ISO. Even with only half the exposure time, the nebula is much brighter. I’m really getting the hang of this now.

Shot 10 August 2008, ISO 800, Exp 5x5m, f/5.2, Canon EOS 5D & Televue NP127is, from Rock Springs Parking Lot, Mt. Tamalpais State Park.

The moon again. I shot this one mainly to determine the infinite focus setting--the moon is just about the easiest object to focus on as you can readily see minor changes in detail at different settings. I also used it as my first experiment with flat field support frames.

Shot 9 August 2008, ISO 100, Exp 1/400s, f/5.2, Canon EOS 5D & Televue NP127is, from Rock Springs Parking Lot, Mt. Tamalpais State Park.