Ad Astra Observatory

Since my Gemini mount is up in WA and my Nikon died, I had a lot of new stuff going on. In particular, I tried out the Canon 300D for the first time. I also wanted to put up the new Ha filter, but I figured that I should try Pumpkin first, since manual setting circles + can’t see through the filter = need to be able to miss by a lot.

So, new imaging OTA, new focuser, first time with a motor focuser on Pumpkin. New filter, new camera, loaner mount.

To take advantage of Pumpkin’s large FOV, I decided to chase an old nemesis, NGC 7000 the North America Nebula.

This object is large and dim, so I was prepared to be underwhelmed by the results of all this new gear.

My first couple of 40sec test shots looked good, so I decided to shoot a run of my normal 5min subframes. I got 75min worth:

In a word, WOW. Look at all that crazy detail!

(It’s not a fair comparison, but check out the last version of NGC7000 I had)

This is the red channel of the image only, no darks, flats, or bias frames applied. This is a resize of the uncropped full FOV.

So much nebulosity! This thing is bright like M42!

I am sold on the Astronomik filter. Next purchase will be the OIII one.

NGC7000, I have you now.