Friday night was very cold and fairly clear – just a few high thin clouds passing through every so often. I was out for a few hours and had the chance to take a few images with my new AT66ED scope that I picked up a month or so ago.

I was able to get scope pretty well aligned fairly quickly and then I was really just focusing on, well, getting decent focus with the my D60 through the scope. A few weeks ago I picked up a
Orion 12.5mm Illuminated Reticle Eyepiece. This was the first chance I had to try it out and it really helped in getting the goto aligned.

Besides just taking some time to observe, I was just trying to get a feel for taking images with the new scope. Here are a couple of the images I captured and I think these are some of the best I have done so far.

Check out the image I got of the Andromeda Galaxy, M31. I actually took about 20 minutes worth of exposures but only 4 of the 2 minute exposures really came out well enough to stack. You can really start to see the dust lanes in our large neighbor. The satellite galaxies M110 and M32 are also both visible in this picture. I can’t wait to image this again.

Andromeda Galaxy - M31, M32, and M110 - 8 x 2 Minutes, ISO400

Then the Pleiades or M45, this image could still use some work, but it is the first stack of images that I have taken of the star cluster where you can really start to see some of the blue nebulosity around the stars in the cluster. The Pleiades will definitely be a target of future observations and images.

M45 - Pleiades, 10 x 2 mins ISO400

Original sizes of the above pics can be found on my flickr page here.

I also spent some time visually observing M42 and several other targets in Orion, such as the Horse Head and Flame Nebula. I was able to make out both of these in the eyepiece but not with very much detail. Again more targets that I cannot wait to spend some more time on.

Mars rose in the east sometime after 11:00 or so and I spent a little time checking out the red planet. I will spend more time checking Mars out again.

Friday was a great night for star gazing. While I was out I also saw one really bright Geminid meteor streak overhead. The rest of the weekend has been cloudy and rainy.

Just a quick thanks to Flintstone Stargazing for the Quick DeepSky Stacker Tutorial, very helpful in setting things up to stack my images. I was not able to “Mosaic” mode for some reason, just showed streaks through the images, but in “Standard” mode I was able to produce the images above by following his other guidelines.

The Andromeda Galaxy

Here’s a wide field shot of Pleiades. Six 2 mintue exposures ISO800 piggy backed 50mm f/1.8.

Pleiades

The frost got to the scope lens pretty quick – even with the dew shield, so everything was cloudy through the main scope not 45 minutes after I got started. I am working on a dew heater for it which should be finished by the time I am out next weekend.

I just did a few test shots of M42, M31, and Pleiades. Tried 30 second, 1 minute, and 2 minute exposures just to see what I could come up with. Below are a few that I think turned out really well. These are either 30 second or 1 minute single exposures with no stacking or other processing (besides cropping and resizing). I used my 55-200mm f/3.5 lens set at infinite focus, ISO800. Most of the shots were taken at 105mm except for the Orion’s belt one which is at 55mm.

Seeing conditions were not that great. A lot of light pollution and clouds but I did enjoy trying out the new mount and I am looking forward to practicing with it on a good clear night.

M42 - The Orion Nebula

Orion's Belt and M42

Pleiades

M31 - Andromeda Galaxy

M31 - Andromeda Galaxy