Coma Star Cluster

[Mystical Potato Head]

Went out about 2.30 am and hurriedly got set up.
Set remote for 30x90sec exposures,got 10 and the effin fog
rolled in.
75-300mm lens at 140mm piggybacked on telescope.
10x90sec lights
10x90sec darks(lens cap on)
5 flat frames(white teeshirt over lens@500th/sec)
5 bias frames(lens cap on@1000th/sec)
Managed to capture a couple of faint galaxies,the one postioned at around 7o'clock
is NGC4564,an edge on spiral galaxy and is 31 million light years away,another faint fuzzy at around 8o'clock,haven't looked it up yet.Had it stayed clear it was my next target through the scope,it really is a beauty close up but yet again the weather mucks the plans up.

http://i374.photobucket.com/albums/oo189/sat5_photos/Autosave.jpg

[cazmanian_minx]

Gorgeous. I couldn't believe how clear it was last night; we were standing on the back doorstep around 10.30 goggling at the sky.

[psyberyeti]

I love to see photos of far off galaxies - it just reminds me of how small we really are. It puts it all into perspective. Thanks MPH - great photos. Keep 'em coming.

[Mystical Potato Head]

Thank you both,i hope to get that edge on galaxy close up soon and my light pollution worries will soon be over thanks to this little filter.
http://www.telescopehouse.com/acatalog/info_8H00IC.html

[North Light]

MPH,
Great photograph, your link is interesting too.

[Tugmistress]

Well i didn't undersatand half of what you've written, but great shot! thank you :)

[Mystical Potato Head]

Will skip the technical jargon next time,dont understand half of it myself :lol:

[Deemac]

Sorry got to disagree with Tugs here. I always like to see the tech stuff (even if I don't understand all of it). Google is a great teacher if you want to learn.

[Tugmistress]

i'd rather learn person to person deemac, it makes it more interesting, either that or 'give it a go' lol
different people like different things :D

[astroman]

Will skip the technical jargon next time,dont understand half of it myself :lol:

Personally I find the technical details very interesting, so am delighted if you include it MPH (I don't know what the 5 bias frames are for - can you enlighten?).
Although image stacking is not something I've done much of it clearly yields much better results. I suppose I'll have to stop behaving like a kid in a sweet shop on clear nights and concentrate on one or two targets rather than seeing how many different objects I can view and photograph.

Great photo BTW. Just goes to show that you don't need a telescope to "see" unbelievable distances.

Look forward to more photos once you've got the light pollution filter (wish they did one for Olympus models:~().

[Mystical Potato Head]

Thanks Astroman.Its difficult to spend most of an evening just photographing one or two
objects but i think its the way to go,and as my LP filter arrived this afternoon i should be able to spend longer on each target without worrying about the tango effect.
Ihave recently tried to take images the proper way with matching darks,flats and bias frames.Not so sure about the bias helping but darks certainly do and the more the better,flats help even out the illumination/colour and reduce vignetting.
Here's a link that explains the theory behind it all...Darks are the most important imho.
I dont think i'll bother with bias frames again although i may see how it works with no LP in the images.

http://deepskystacker.free.fr/english/theory.htm#Calibration

[astroman]

Thanks for the info MPH.