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The elephant trunk nebula (Original Post) moonshinegnomie Oct 2022 OP
Wow! SheltieLover Oct 2022 #1
Spectacular... Glorfindel Oct 2022 #2
Wow! Truly beautiful! Solly Mack Oct 2022 #3
Magnificent! James48 Oct 2022 #4
Q? James48 Oct 2022 #5
i use a mount to track the stars moonshinegnomie Oct 2022 #10
Really cool image, thanks for sharing ... aggiesal Oct 2022 #6
WoW! Did chills go up your spine when you saw that? Fla Dem Oct 2022 #7
ive shot the andromeda galaxy which is 2.5Million light years away moonshinegnomie Oct 2022 #11
Impressive! Fla Dem Oct 2022 #12
LIKE republianmushroom Oct 2022 #8
Looks like Mick Jagger's lips actually. Ligyron Oct 2022 #9

moonshinegnomie

(2,466 posts)
10. i use a mount to track the stars
Wed Oct 26, 2022, 08:26 PM
Oct 2022

these are the actual technical details
williams redcat 51 lens (1 250mm focla length lens) on a sony a7iii
optolng l-enhance filter (a filter designed to greatly reduce light pollution when shooting nebulas)
celestron avx mount to track the stars
asair pro (a small controller to help tracking and locate objects. its connected to an old ipad)
zwo 120 camera (it helps guide the mount to eliminate tracking errors)

the actual exposure is 48 5 minute shots . the individual shots are combined with 30 bias shots which are taken with the lens cap on and teh exposure set to the shortest time possible. this helps reduce noise. i also used 30 flats which are taken against a neutral object. i use the ipad set to a white screen pressed against the lens. these help remove dust spots,light pollution gradients,extraneous objects like airplanes or satellites etc.... some people take another set of shots called darks which are taken with the same setting as the normal shot sbut the lens cap is also on. these can als help reduce noise but i find i dont really need them with my camera.

the whole set of images are stacked using specialized software. I use a package called pixinsight. the software is then used to stretch teh image which prings out the nebula and stars while keeping the background dark.

after pixinsight i use photoshop for final editing



Fla Dem

(23,723 posts)
7. WoW! Did chills go up your spine when you saw that?
Wed Oct 26, 2022, 08:14 PM
Oct 2022

After all that nebula is 2400 light years away.
Spine tingling to me for sure.

moonshinegnomie

(2,466 posts)
11. ive shot the andromeda galaxy which is 2.5Million light years away
Wed Oct 26, 2022, 08:28 PM
Oct 2022

ive also shot smaller galaxiess that are 50-100m LY away

I just think its cool i can shoot them from my house which is just outside austin texas in teh first suburb north of town

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