Once the moon passes through the prime part of my sky, I can start shooting a few more subs...Here is another 30 minutes of exposure added to the previous picture of M20 below. Still a bit grainy, but notice how detail is starting to come out, especially the fainter nebulosity around the bright stuff.
In my never ending battle with equipment, I'm currently facing problems with wear in the reduction gears of the R.A. drive motor, and can only use 15-20% of the shots I shoot. That means this 30 minutes of exposure took nearly four hours to shoot. If there is any advantage to this, it's that when and if I get myself into a premium mount and drive, I will know enough to be able to take full advantage of it. In the meantime, I am just waiting for the inspired idea to hit me that will eliminate the current problem.
At least the color problems appear to be somewhat banished; there is no color correction or balancing in this shot at all-just stack the subs, stretch the dynamic range (surprisingly little) and increase color saturation; what you see is what the camera saw. Compare this to the last picture I took with the 300D.
What surprises me is that these are all done with the same telescope. So many advertisements make is seem that if you spend 3 or 4 grand on their spiffiest stuff, you'll be shooting pictures like this-if nothing else, this year has shown me just how hard astrophotography is. Of course, truly good equipment costs many times that much, but those manufacturers are not trying to sell to unknowing magazine readers, and they make no claims that anyone can just do it by pushing a button.
(Don't forget that ALL of these pictures are clickable for a larger version)
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