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Taking advantage of a clearing of about an hour , I had the possibility to capture the Orion Nebula (M42).
After many item purchasing over a long period, it is the first time I quickly setup all the equipment !
Conditions:
Brief clearing, transparent and clear sky after much rain.
Location : Saint Remy les Chevreuse (35Km Paris, no major cities in the South)
Orion in the SW getting closer to the bright area of a street lighting (HP Na) :(
Technical details :
Had to hurry with setup, otherwise would have been perfectly ready but under the rain !
Polar alignment with polar viewfinder (3min)...ATTENTION Time must be entered in UT !!
Setting ISO 1600, JPEG mode
Rapid focusing only in the Canon viewfinder with confirmation by posing 10s and looking at APN screen x 10x (3min)
Orion framing (1 min)
Switching to RAW mode
Launching exposures of 1 min for 1 / 2 hour
Launching exposures of10s during a few min. NB: unfortunately already hazy skies.
No flat this time.
During disassembly and storage just before the return of the rain :
Canon 300D with cap placed on a chair outside under the open roof
(same temperature as during the shooting) ...
dark of 1 min (16)
dark 10s (13)
offsets to 1/4000s (5)
Image processing:
Irfanview:
Lum color adjustment gamma etc . Saving PNG 16bits.
Item used :
Orion 80ED
Mount LXD75
2 " tube extension
IDAS filter LPS
Defiltered Canon 300D
Pocket Shutter by Denis Joye
4GB CF card Ultra II High Speed Sandisk
DeepSkyStacker, Irfanview, Paint Shop Pro
Of course, it will be possible to do better with the same intruments next time with more time
of clear skies and better adjustments ( ISO 400, more RAWs, flats, etc.).
Just print your own calculated for you refractor or telescope on a transparency film with a laser printer* !
glue it and scotch it on a stripe of foam (roll of sleeping foam used when hiking) as below & then get very good focus in an instant !!
(*Then you don't have to cut out the white / The .svg file can be open and printed easily
with Irfanview+plugins / I use 2 prints ajusted together for better contrast)
Look at a few sec exposure on Vega (ISO 1600) with the mask :
Main line not centered ... bad focus 1 min later, line centered ... Very good focus !!
Hint : I you are shooting in HAlpha, I guess it is possible to use another filter of the same
thickness (LPS eg.) for focusing then change it back for shooting ...